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Prevotella copri, an intestinal microbe, may overexpand in stool samples from patients with new‐onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but it is not yet clear whether the organism has immune relevance in RA pathogenesis.

HLA–DR–presented peptides (T cell epitopes) from P copri were sought directly in the patients' synovial tissue or peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples using tandem mass spectrometry. The antigenicity of peptides or their source proteins was examined in samples from the RA patients or comparison groups. T cell reactivity was determined by enzyme‐linked immunospot assay; antibody responses were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, and cytokine/chemokine determinations were made by bead‐based assays. Serum and synovial fluid samples were examined for 16S ribosomal DNA for P copri using nested polymerase chain reaction analysis …