Abstract
This study was undertaken to investigate the role of peroxynitrite (ONOO
−
) modified thymine-5′-monophosphate (TMP) in the generation of anti-DNA autoantibodies in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). TMP was exposed to ONOO
−
in vitro and challenged in vivo. TMP and ONOO
−
-modified-TMP were found to be nonimmunogenic in rabbits. TMP-linked-BSA and ONOO
−
-modified-TMP-BSA induced high titer antibodies. Induced antibodies against ONOO
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-TMP-BSA show crossreactions with nucleic acids conformers. A high degree of specific binding by SLE autoantibodies with ONOO
−
-TMP-BSA was observed. Our novel results provide an important insight into the immunological basis of anti-DNA autoantibodies generation in SLE.