Anti-Vimentin Antibodies are Associated With Higher Severity of Sjogren's Syndrome

A method of detecting and treating one or more symptoms of Sjögren's syndrome in a subject comprising:

• obtaining or having obtained a biological sample from the subject;
• detecting an amount of anti-vimentin antibodies in the biological sample, using as a capture agent a post-translationally modified soluble vimentin;
• and
• administering one or more therapeutic compositions selected from the group consisting of saliva substitutes, saliva stimulants, interferon-alpha, artificial tears, methylcellulose inserts, eye ointments, muscarinic agonist drugs, immunomodulatory drugs, and autologous serum drops in an amount effective to treat one or more symptoms of Sjögren's syndrome in the subject having the higher severity Sjögren's syndrome if the amount of anti-vimentin antibodies in the sample is higher than in a healthy control or an average of patients with moderate to low symptoms of Sjögren's syndrome.

An assay for detecting a higher severity Sjögren's syndrome consisting essentially of:

• assaying a biological sample obtained from the subject suffering from one or more symptoms of Sjögren's syndrome for an amount of anti-vimentin autoantibodies, wherein the biological sample is selected from the group consisting of tears, saliva, salivary gland tissue, blood, serum, and plasma;
• applying an algorithm to the amount of anti-vimentin antibodies, the algorithm generating a Sjögren's syndrome score based on a comparison of the measured protein expression levels to reference levels;
• wherein the anti-vimentin autoantibodies are detected using an assay selected from at least one of:
• multiplex bead-based assay, capillary Western Blot, ELISA, flow cytometry, precipitin, fluorimetry, microscopy, immunofluorescence, radioimmunoassay, immunoenzymatic assay, fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), differential display, representational difference analysis, microarray, Western blotting, immunohistochemical staining, immunocytochemical staining, dot blots, or surface plasmon resonance detection, wherein vimentin used in the assay is a post-translationally modified soluble vimentin;
• and
• wherein if the patient has a higher amount of anti-vimentin autoantibodies when compared to a healthy control or an average of patients with moderate to low symptoms of SS, identifying that the patient has a higher severity Sjögren's syndrome.

A method of detecting a biomarker comprising:

• obtaining a biological sample from the patient suspected of having Sjögren's syndrome (SS);
• detecting or having detected an amount of anti-vimentin autoantibodies in the biological sample using as a capture agent a post-translationally modified soluble vimentin;
• comparing the amount of anti-vimentin autoantibodies in the biological sample to an amount in a healthy control or an average of patients with moderate to low symptoms of SS;
• and
• determining, by a computer device, that the patient has a higher amount of anti-vimentin autoantibodies when compared to the healthy control or patients with moderate to low symptoms of SS;
• and if the patient has a higher amount of anti-vimentin autoantibodies identifying that the patient has a higher severity Sjögren's syndrome.