Anti-NuMA antibodies in a psoriatic patient: Considerations about clinical relevance and effect of infliximab treatment

Abstract

Antibodies against the nuclear mitotic spindle apparatus protein (NuMA) are infrequently detected during antinuclear antibodies testing on HEp-2 cells. In a series of 428 psoriatic patients anti-NuMA antibodies were found only in a patient, at a titer of 1:640, without any apparent clinical relevance. The significance of anti-NuMA is not yet known and is briefly reviewed, also in consideration of potential therapeutic implications. Although biologic drugs targeting tumor necrosis factor-alpha have been associated with the development of non-organ specific autoantibodies and rare reports of autoimmune phenomena, infliximab was well tolerated in this patient and caused no changes in autoantibody titers.

Keywords::

• Psoriasis
• mitotic spindle apparatus
• NuMA autoantibodies
• infliximab
• anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha therapy
• autoimmunity