Anti-tumour immune responses to modified self-epitopes. The present invention relates to the use of tumour-associated epitopes in medicine and in particular in the treatment of cancer. The epitopes stimulate an immune reaction against the tumour and have a modification selected from deimination of arginine to citrulline, nitration of tyrosine, oxidation of tryptophan and deamination of glutamine or asparagine. The invention also relates to nucleic acids comprising sequences that encode such epitopes for use in the treatment of cancer.

The present invention provides citrullinated 14-3-3 peptides and antibodies thereto and methods of using same to evaluate arthritic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The present invention relates to multiplex microarrays and methods for the quantification of analytes. In particular, the invention relates to improved methods which standardize a target analyte concentration in a test sample against a reference standardization curve derived from validated, approved and recognized reference standards for the target analyte of known concentrations. The present invention also relates to methods and checks for simultaneous measurement of confidence confirming normalization standards and controls.

The invention relates to a method of identifying a subject suspected of having or being susceptible to an autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), comprising: contacting a sample of bodily fluid obtained from the subject with (i) a binding pair member having a binding affinity for citrullinated tenascin (cTNC) or a fragment thereof or (ii) a cTNC peptide; determining in a sample of bodily fluid obtained from the subject the presence or amount of (i) a citrullinated peptide derived from tenascin or (ii) an anti cTNC antibody; comparing the presence or amount of (i) the citrullinated peptide derived from tenascin or (ii) the anti cTNC antibody with a pre-defined threshold value; and assigning a diagnosis of RA or a future likelihood of developing RA when the presence or amount of (i) cTNC or (ii) an antibody against cTNC is detected or exceeds the threshold; and associated kits, peptides, binding members and uses thereof.

Provided herein are methods and markers for diagnosing cardiovascular disease and/or neurodegenearative diseases in a subject. The methods include obtaining a biological sample from a subject in need of diagnosis and detecting the amount of a citrullinated protein or a citrullinated peptide in the biological sample obtained from said subject.

The present invention discloses mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods and tagging reagents for qualitative and quantitative analysis of post-translational modified (PTM) proteins in biological and clinical samples. The present invention utilizes thiol-containing tagging reagents which are able to bind to or derivatize biomolecules, preferably post-translational modified (PTM) polypeptides such as citrullinated and homocitrullinated polypeptides. The tagging reagents are preferably biotin-derived tags able to react with a side chain of the modified polypeptides.

Compositions and methods are disclosed that relate to the discovery of citrullinated oligopeptides of 9-14 amino acids or 9-18 amino acids, comprising peptide sequences derived from the polypeptide sequence of human tenascin-C (TNC) containing citrullination-dependent immunological epitopes that, remarkably, are antigen-specifically recognized by both autoantibodies and CD4+ T cells from human subjects having rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The citrullinated TNC (citTNC) oligopeptides are useful for isolating autoantibodies from, and detecting autoantibodies in, biological fluids from subjects having or suspected of having RA. Also described are uses of citTNC oligopeptides to prepare compositions for induction of citTNC autoantigen-specific immunological tolerance, including tolerogens and citTNC-specific Treg cells.

Disclosed herein are methods for diagnosing cardiovascular disease. The methods comprise detection of citrullinated proteins and/or citrullinated peptides. Also disclosed herein are methods, compositions, and kits for diagnosing and/or treating cardiovascular disease.

Novel phenyl-glyoxal based anti-citrulline probes and methods of synthesis are provided. Methods of use, such as, the development of methods for monitoring substrate citrullination over time; for identifying citrullinated proteins from cells are described.

The present invention relates to the field of biomarkers. More specifically, the present invention relates to biomarkers useful in diagnosing brain injury or neurodegeneration. In one embodiment, a method for diagnosing brain injury in a patient comprises the steps of (a) obtaining a sample from the patient; (b) determining the ratio of citrullinated to unmodified arginine residues at one or more arginine residues of one or more brain injury biomarker proteins; and (c) correlating the ratio to a patient having brain injury or to a patient not having brain injury, thereby providing the diagnosis.