Vasculitis foundation grant for UMCG
01 jul 2016The UMCG vasculitis expertise center has obtained a research grant from the Vasculitis foundation USA
The research proposed in this project will study the autoantibodies that cause the inflammation. Antibody proteins are coated with sugars, the extent and composition of which determines their function. In this project we hypothesize that the autoantibodies in AAV differ from “normal” antibodies with respect to the amount of sugar groups attached and therefore impacts their function. To this end, we will isolate the autoantibodies from the patient’s blood and characterize in detail the extent and composition of the sugar coating. We expect this research will inform efforts to refine laboratory tests for AAV diagnosis and patient monitoring and, in the future, reveal whether interfering with the sugar coating of autoantibodies can be used for therapeutic applications.
