Antibodies Don’t Determine Autoimmune Severity: You must interpret levels from your baseline

While elevated antibodies are used to diagnose autoimmunity, antibody levels do not necessarily reflect the severity of autoimmune expression.

If your antibodies are elevated on a lab test, but you are managing your autoimmunity and feel good, you are probably in remission.

If your antibody levels are lower and your autoimmune symptoms are raging out of control, this could signal dysfunction in another area of your immune system.

The key is establishing your unique antibody level baseline and monitoring variations from there.

Autoimmune antibodies explained

Autoimmunity occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s tissues. Antibodies produced by B cells play a crucial role in autoimmunity by tagging cells for destruction.

Elevated tissue antibodies are a marker for autoimmunity. (Antibodies in the lab range are normal as those are used to remove cells that die naturally.)

However, to truly understand autoimmunity, it is essential to consider the interaction between B cells and T cells.

T cells identify and destroy cells tagged by B cells. B cells do not directly destroy anything but mark the target for elimination.

Assessing both B-cell antibody production and T-cell response is crucial for gaining a comprehensive understanding of autoimmunity.

The role of T cells in autoimmunity

T cells can be categorized into different types based on their functions:

T helper cells help coordinate the immune response and activate other immune cells like B cells.
Cytotoxic T cells are responsible for directly killing infected or abnormal cells.
T regulatory cells help regulate the immune response to prevent excessive inflammation.
TH17 cells promote inflammation in response to pathogens.

When T cells target self-tissues, they cause tissue damage associated with various autoimmune diseases, such as Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, or multiple sclerosis.

Testing T and B cell responses

If your antibodies are elevated but you feel like you are in remission, or if your antibodies are lower but your symptoms are flaring, you may want to test your T cells. (Please also note that in the early stages of autoimmunity, people may be asymptomatic despite elevated antibodies.)

The lymphocyte panel

The lymphocyte panel measures the total and percentage of T cells, including T helper cells, regulatory cells, suppressor cells, cytotoxic T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells. Analyzing the composition and activities of these immune cells can provide a better understanding of the immune response in autoimmune conditions.

Antibody testing

Specialized autoimmunity labs like Cyrex Labs offer comprehensive antibody testing.

Monitoring the fluctuations in antibodies over time from your baseline can provide valuable insights into the progression or remission of autoimmune responses.

Changes in antibody levels may not always correlate with disease severity

Remember, changes in antibody levels do not always correlate with disease severity, as antibodies themselves do not have destructive properties. Therefore, relying solely on antibody levels to assess disease activity may not provide a complete picture of the autoimmune process.

The neurological antibody exception

Neurological antibodies themselves can cause damage, presenting an exception to this scenario.

This distinction is crucial as it means that when neurological antibody levels are elevated, it signifies a more severe autoimmune response targeting nerve cell structures.