| abstract |
The present invention provides methods for diagnosing an immune-mediated disease, e.g., an autoimmune disease, an allergy or an inflammatory disease. Diagnosis is made by detecting a heterozygous or homozygous genotype of haptoglobin 2 or by detecting and quantifying pre-haptoglobin 2 mRNA or protein. After diagnosis, the disease may be treated by decreasing cell permeability leading to increased transepithelial electrical resistance, for example, by administering an antibody directed against single chain zonulin thereby inhibiting epidermal growth factor receptor and inhibiting proteinase-activated receptor 2 (PAR 2 ). Also provided is a single step method for determining severity of an immune-mediated disease in a subject by identifying a genotype for haptoglobin 2 in a biological sample from the subject. A homozygous genotype correlates to 2 copies of zonulin and a more severe disease than a heterozygous genotype correlating to 1 copy of zonulin. |