Autoantibody in spinal fluids

Querol L, Clark PL, Bailey MA, Cotsapas C, Cross AH, Hafler DA, Kleinstein SH, Lee JY, Yaari G, Willis SN, O'Connor KC.Protein array-based profiling of CSF identifies RBPJ as an autoantigen in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2013 Aug. [Epub ahead of print]

OBJECTIVE:To profile the reactivity of CSF-derived immunoglobulin from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) against a large panel of antigens, to identify disease-specific reactivities.
METHODS: CSF from subjects with MS with elevated immunoglobulin G and CSF from control subjects presenting with other inflammatory neurologic disease were screened against a protein array consisting of 9,393 proteins. Reactivity to a candidate protein identified using these arrays was confirmed with ELISA and immunocytochemistry.
RESULTS: Autoantibodies against one protein on the array, recombination signal binding protein for immunoglobulin kappa J region (RBPJ), discriminated between patients with MS and controls (p = 0.0052). Using a large validation cohort, we found a higher prevalence of autoantibodies against RBPJ in the CSF of patients with MS (12.5%) compared with the CSF of patients with other neurologic diseases (1.6%; p = 0.02) by ELISA. This difference in reactivity was restricted to the CSF as serum reactivity against RBPJ did not differ between patients and controls. The presence of CSF autoantibodies against RBPJ was further confirmed by immunocytochemistry.
CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that RBPJ, a ubiquitous protein of the Notch signaling pathway that plays an important role in Epstein-Barr virus infection, is a novel MS autoantigen candidate that is recognized by CSF-derived immunoglobulin G in a subset of patients with MS.



Hunting for antibodies in tissue fluids is a pass-time for immunologists. This study adds yet one more to the growing list, a bit of a light chain of antibodies, but as ever, this occurs in a minority of Mers so what is the real significance?

 

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