Antineural antibodies in the serum of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Abstract

Sera from 12 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 18 controls were screened for antineural antibodies using immunoblotting. No consistent differences were detected between ALS patients and controls, although antibodies to 52,000- and 70,000-dalton proteins in mouse spinal cord were somewhat more common in ALS sera. Antibodies to a protein of approximately 150,000 to 200,000 daltons were also evident. The 70,000- and 52,000-dalton proteins were detected in brain, cerebellum, and liver as well as spinal cord. Immunohistochemistry suggested antibody activity was directed at least in part to neurofilaments. While the antibodies to the 52,000- and 70,000-dalton proteins were more common in ALS than control sera (p less than 0.02 and less than 0.05, respectively), it is not clear from this initial study that this difference is of clinical or etiologic significance.

Antibodies to Human Spinal Cord Proteins in Sera from Patients with Motor Neuron Disease and Other Neurological Diseases

“…Out study demonstrated the presence of antibodies to spinal-cord proteins in sera from patients with MND and other neurological diseases, as has been reported by Brown et al [1] and Klett et al [2], Among these, ALS-1 reacted with 65-and 66-kD insoluble proteins in the crude nuclear subfraction although it has not been deter mined whether these proteins are components of the nuclear membrane. ALS-1 had the highest titer of all.…”

“…Brown et al [1] reported that antineural antibodies which reacted with 52, 70-and 150-to 200-kD proteins in mouse spinal cord were detected in ALS and some controls by the immunoblotting technique using sera diluted from 1:20 to 1:100. They demonstrated that some sera reacted with the neurofilaments and nuclear membrane of all cells immunohistochemically using the avidin-biotin technique with sections freshly prepared from mouse spinal cord.…”

“…Motor neuron disease (MND) has been considered to be a degenerative disorder, but recently several studies have revealed the presence of antibodies to neural tissue in sera from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) [1,2]. In patients with MND-associated IgM para proteinemia, the presence of antibodies to glycolipid has been demonstrated [3].…”

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cancer do not differ clinically from patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

“…In our series of patients with pure ALS we observed no anti-nervous system staining using standard methods. Moreover, anti-nervous system antibodies have been described in ALS patients both with and without tumor [1,4,7,12,15,24,26].…”

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: An unconventional autoimmune disease?

“…However, the observation of a sproutinhibiting effect of some of the patients' sera, if confirmed, would suggest that the motor nerve terminal itself may be an important site in the pathogenesis of ALS (see later). Finally, there are several reports of immunoglobulins from ALS patients binding to spinal cord cells or extracts [19, 203, but some of these findings have not been replicated [21,22). As [24) found an increased incidence of the HLA A3 histocompatibility type in patients with "classical" rapidly progressive ALS and an increased incidence of HLA B12 in those with slowly progressive forms, but others have failed to replicate these observations [25).…”