Emerging Immunodiagnostics

Current technological advances in multicolor flow cytometry, gene expression arraying, and proteomics hold the promise to markedly broaden the diagnostic armamentarium in clinical immunology and allow for a precise assessment of inflammatory activity, immune competence, and subtle immune defects. Current diagnostic tools in immunology only provide a crude assessment of immune functions in humans. Progress in clinical immunology, such as tailoring immunosuppressive therapy and designing interventions to improve immune health, require new biomarkers to quantitatively describe immune status in patients and healthy individuals. The Lowance Center is developing new immunological biomarkers that can be assessed in blood and tissue samples. The analytical validity, clinical utility, and ethical, legal, and social issues associated with these novel biomarkers are examined in prospective cohort studies.

Publications

Goronzy JJ , Fujii H, Weyand CM. Telomeres, immune aging and autoimmunity. Exp Gerontol 41:246-251, 2006 .

Weyand CM, Goronzy JJ, Kurtin PJ. Lymphoma in rheumatoid arthritis – An immune system set up for failure. Arthritis Rheum 54:685-689, 2006.

Naylor K, Li G, Vallejo AN, Lee WW, Koetz K, Bryl E, Witkowski J, Fulbright J, Weyand CM, Goronzy JJ . The influence of age on T cell generation and TCR diversity. J Immunol 174:7446-7452, 2005.

Bryl E, Vallejo AN, Matteson EL, Witkowski JM, Weyand CM, Goronzy JJ. Modulation of CD28 expression with anti-tumor necrosis factor-α therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 52:2996-3003, 2005.

Goronzy JJ , Matteson EL, Fulbright JW, Warrington KJ, Chang-Miller A, Hunder GG, Mason TG, Nelson AM, Valente RM, Crowson CS, Erlich HA, Reynolds RL, Swee RG, O’Fallon WM, Weyand CM. Prognostic markers of radiographic progression in early rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 50:43-54, 2004.

Goronzy JJ, Weyand CM. Aging, autoimmunity and arthritis: T-cell senescence and contraction of T-cell repertoire diversity - catalysts of autoimmunity and chronic inflammation. Arthritis Res Ther 5:225-234, 2003.

Schönland SO, Lopez C, Widmann T, Zimmer J, Bryl E, Goronzy JJ, Weyand CM. Premature telomeric loss in rheumatoid arthritis is genetically determined and involves lymphoid and myeloid cell lineages. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:13471-13476, 2003.

Yen J-H, Moore BE, Nakajima T, Scholl D, Schaid DJ, Weyand CM, Goronzy JJ. Major histocompatibility complex class I-recognizing receptors are disease risk genes in rheumatoid arthritis. J Exp Med 193:1159-1167, 2001.

Goronzy JJ, Fulbright JW, Crowson CS, Poland GA, O’Fallon WM, Weyand CM. Value of immunological markers in predicting responsiveness to influenza vaccination in elderly individuals. J Virol 75:12182-12187, 2001.

Liuzzo G, Vallejo AN, Kopecky SL, Frye RL, Holmes DR, Goronzy JJ, Weyand CM. Molecular fingerprint of interferon-γ signaling in unstable angina. Circulation 103:1509-1514, 2001.

Weyand CM, Goronzy JJ, Liuzzo G, Kopecky SL, Holmes DR, Frye RL. T-cell immunity in acute coronary syndromes. Mayo Clin Proc 76:1011-1020, 2001.

Weyand CM, Fulbright JW, Hunder GG, Evans JM, Goronzy JJ. Treatment of giant cell arteritis: interleukin-6 as biomarker of disease activity. Arthritis Rheum 43:1041-1048, 2000.

Liuzzo G, Kopecky SL, Frye RL, Maseri A, Goronzy JJ, Weyand CM. Perturbation of the T cell repertoire in patients with unstable angina. Circulation 100:2135-2139, 1999.

Weyand CM, McCarthy TG, Goronzy JJ. Correlation between disease phenotype and genetic heterogeneity in rheumatoid arthritis. J Clin Invest 95:2120-2126, 1995.

Roche NE, Fulbright JW, Wagner AD, Hunder GG, Goronzy JJ, Weyand CM. Correlation of interleukin-6 production and disease activity in polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. Arthritis Rheum 36:1286-1294, 1993.