US scientists have discovered that the disease chronic ulcerative stomatitis (CUS) is an autoimmune condition.
Researchers at the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine found that the disease, which is characterised by painful sores in the mouth, found that autoantibodies fulfil the criteria of pathogenetic antibodies and contribute to CUS.
In previous studies researchers identified that CUS patients had specific autoantibodies produced by an immune response to the body's own tissue but were not sure whether those antibodies were contributing to CUS or part of a benign biological process.
Dr Lynn Solomon, lead author of the study and associate professor in the department of oral and maxillofacial pathology at Tufts, said diagnosing CUS currently requires a surgical biopsy which must be sent to an outside lab for special processing.
"Accurate diagnosis is important because the usual treatment option for immunologically-mediated diseases, corticosteroids, is often not effective in treating CUS," she added.
Just 39 cases of CUS have been reported in English-language literature since it was identified as a clinically distinct condition in 1989.