Sjogren Syndrome Antigen B (SSB)

Sjogren syndrome antigen B (autoantigen La), also known as SSB,La is involved in diverse aspects of RNA metabolism, including binding and protecting 3-prime UUU(OH) elements of newly RNA polymerase III-transcribed RNA, processing 5-prime and 3-prime ends of pre-tRNA precursors, acting as an RNA chaperone, and binding viral RNAs associated with hepatitis C virus. La protein was originally defined by its reactivity with autoantibodies from patients with Sjogren syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (Teplova et al., 2006).Grolz and Bachmann (1997) stated that there are 3 La pseudogenes. They also found that alternative splicing gives rise to 3 different mRNAs, all of which were expressed in all tissues tested, and all of which were translated into nuclear La protein in transfected mouse cells.