RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access

A new immunoprecipitation-real time quantitative PCR assay for anti-Th/To and anti-U3RNP antibody detection in systemic sclerosis Angela Ceribelli1, Minoru Satoh2 and Edward KL Chan1* Introduction: Classic anti-nucleolar antibodies anti-Th/To and U3 ribonucleoprotein (-U3RNP) can help in the diagnosis, prediction of organ involvement and prognosis in systemic sclerosis (SSc); however, no validated commercial assay is available. We aimed at establishing a novel quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) method to detect these antibodies. Methods: Standard immunoprecipitation (IP) was performed using K562 cell extract and RNA components wer