The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and clinical relevance of a commercially available line immunoblot assay (LIA) for detecting anti-U3-RNP/fibrillarin (anti-U3-RNP), against immunoprecipitation (gold standard). This study involved a multi-ethnic cohort of 1000 American systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients and 50 healthy controls. Antinuclear antibodies and centromere antibodies were detected by indirect immunofluorescent antibody test, anti-topo I by immunodiffusion and anti-RNAP III by ELISA. The presence of anti-U3-RNP in select serum samples was detected by immunoprecipitation (IP) and LIA. By IP, U3-RNP antibody was detected in 75 (7.5 %) patients with SSc. Overall agreement between LIA and IP was very good (κ = 0.966). Analytic sensitivity and specificity of the U3-RNP LIA was 100 and 94.7 %, respectively. Clinical features associated with positivity for the anti-U3-RNP antibody include diffuse cutaneous SSc and increased prevalence of renal crisis, consistent with previous studies that used IP. Testing for U3-RNP antibodies is only performed by a small number of laboratories due to the complexity of both performance and interpretation of the IP. LIA is faster and less complex than IP. Excellent agreement between IP and LIA demonstrates that LIA is an acceptable and attractive alternative to IP for anti-U3-RNP detection.
Keywords: Anti-U3 small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein; Anti-fibrillarin; Antinuclear antibodies; Autoantibodies; Systemic sclerosis.