title: Detection of antibodies to human nerve antigens in sera from leprosy patients by ELISA.
abstract: Anti-neural antibodies have been implicated to play a role in the pathogenesis of nerve damage in leprosy patients. To find the relationship between anti-neural antibodies and clinical findings, we attempted to detect antibodies against neurofilament-enriched proteins by ELISA in sera from leprosy patients. Of 289 sera from leprosy patients, 74 (25.6%) had significant anti-neural antibodies; in contrast, 1 (5.0%) of 20 tuberculosis patients and 11 (7.1%) of 154 controls were seroreactive to nerve antigen. When clinical types were considered, a significant level of anti-neural IgG antibodies was detectable in 53 (30.1%) of 176 sera from lepromatous patients compared with 21 (18.6%) of 113 sera from tuberculoid patients, indicating that lepromatous patients were more likely to be seropositive to nerve antigens in ELISA. Some of the ELISA-reactive sera showed antibody reactivity with 38-kD, 40-kD and 43-kD nerve antigens in Western blotting analysis. There was no apparent correlation between seroreactivity to nerve antigens and bacterial load in leprosy patients. Although there was no statistical significance, anti-neural antibodies were detectable more often among the patients on chemotherapy than the untreated and among the patients with erythema nodosum leprosum than without. The results, therefore, suggest that anti-neural antibodies are elicited during the course of leprosy and may be associated with the extensiveness of nerve involvement in the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Youn
authors.forename: D I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Cellona
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Fajardo
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000937:Antigen-Antibody Reactions / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D007382:Intermediate Filaments / Q000276:immunology*; D015440:Leprosy, Lepromatous / Q000276:immunology*; D015441:Leprosy, Tuberculoid / Q000276:immunology*; D011817:Rabbits; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000276:immunology; D014390:Tuberculosis, Meningeal / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G