Catalytic antibodies in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy patients cleave desmoglein 2 and N-cadherin and impair cardiomyocyte cohesion.

Our study demonstrates that catalytic autoantibodies play a pathogenic role by cleaving ICD cadherins and thereby reducing cardiomyocyte cohesion by a mechanism involving p38MAPK activation. Finally, we conclude that DSG2 cleavage by autoantibodies could be used as a diagnostic tool for AC.