The presence of autoantibodies is a hallmark in rheumatic conditions which can be used for diagnosis of disease.
Some autoantibodies might also harbor a predictive value regarding progression or treatment response.
My scientific ambition is to improve the lives of patients with rheumatic diseases by increasing the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic testing, finding biomarkers for early prediction of disease development and identifying markers for treatment response and clinical outcomes.
Team members
As of January 2024.
Publications Highlights
The diagnostic and prognostic value of IgG and IgA anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis.
Sieghart D, Konrad C, Swiniarski S, Haslacher H, Aletaha D, Steiner G. Front Immunol. 2023;13:1096866. Published 2023 Jan 5. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2022.1096866
In this study we compared the diagnostic value of different CCP assays and analysed the value of IgA autoantibody measurements.
Functional Analysis of Autoantibody Signatures in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Milchram L, Fischer A, Huber J, Sieghart D, et al. Molecules. 2022;27(4):1452. Published 2022 Feb 21. doi:10.3390/molecules27041452
In this collaboration together with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) we have identified novel autoantibodies in patients with RA as well as in an animal model for RA.
Presence of anti-acetylated peptide antibodies (AAPA) in inflammatory arthritis and other rheumatic diseases suggests discriminative diagnostic capacity towards early rheumatoid arthritis.
Studenic P, Alunno A, Sieghart D, et al. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. 2021;13:1759720X211022533. Published 2021 Jul 23. doi:10.1177/1759720X211022533
Here we showed that autoantibodies against other post-transcriptionally modified proteins can be used as diagnostic markers for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Determination of Autoantibody Isotypes Increases the Sensitivity of Serodiagnostics in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Sieghart D, Platzer A, Studenic P, et al. Front Immunol. 2018;9:876. Published 2018 Apr 24. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2018.00876
In collaboration with Thermo Fisher we have studied the diagnostic value of three autoantibodies in three different isotypes to identify patients with RA.