A possible link between multiple sclerosis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease based on clinical, genetic, pathological and immunological evidence involving Acinetobacter bacteria.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the nervous system. There is an increasingly likelihood that MS could be triggered/perpetuated by environmental (microbial) agents. Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is a relatively rare but fatal disease, which shows various clinical, genetic, pathological and immunological features through which it resembles a severe form of MS. The disease in some patients with MS may show a rapidly downhill course with death occurring within one to two years and a similar situation occurs in sCJD. The occurrence of these comparative similarities between MS and sCJD could be explained on the basis that both of these conditions might be sharing a common aetiopathogenic factor such as infection by Acinetobacter microbes and this possibility could be investigated further by carrying out immunological studies on a relatively large numbers of patients with MS and CJD.
Ebringer
Alan
A
Infection and Immunity Group, Division of Health and Life Sciences, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NN, UK. alan.ebringer@kcl.ac.uk
Rashid
Taha
T
Wilson
Clyde
C
Boden
Richard
R
Thompson
Edward
E
D000150:Acinetobacter / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D000151:Acinetobacter Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology