Blood Plasma Pseudocholinesterase as a Potential Biomarker of Autoimmune Diseases

Abstract

We studied the blood plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE, pseudocholinesterase) activity as a potential marker for differentiating such autoimmune pathologies as type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1), autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from diseases having similar symptoms but different etiology. The blood plasma pseudocholinesterase activity was analyzed for patients with different types of diabetes mellitus. We showed its fivefold increase in DM1 compared to the control group, while in the second type of diabetes, which is metabolic pathology, it decreases two times. It was demonstrated that the activity of blood plasma BChE in patients with AIT and RA also increased fivefold compared to the group of patients without autoimmune disorders. Thus, the butyrylcholinesterase activity increases in diseases of an autoimmune nature, whereas in metabolic pathology it has the tendency to decrease; it indicates the adequacy of the selected criterion for the further development of a screening test-system that would allow differentiation of autoimmune diseases from the diseases of another origin, but with similar symptoms.