Detection of myelin autoantibodies: evaluation of an assay system for diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in differentiation from other central nervous system diseases.
BACKGROUND
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a frequent and often severe autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. We describe a newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based test system for the assessment of neuronal autoantibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This tool could help define autoimmune status and thus be a potential means of therapeutic surveillance.


METHODS
We used an assay system (ELISA, E100, Mediagnost) based on purified bovine antigens [myelin-oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), myelin basic protein (MBP), myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), proteolipid protein (PLP) and alpha-B-crystalline (CRY)] antibodies for the measurement of specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies. Assay characteristics and preliminary validation were conducted by measurement of serum and CSF samples from 41 MS patients and 128 patients with other neurological diseases (OND).


RESULTS
We measured the inter- (17.8/10.1%) and intra-assay variability (5.5/6.7%); linearity (1:250- 1:16,000), and specificity of IgG and IgM. We demonstrate that by the results of this test system MS patients can be differentiated from patients with OND.


CONCLUSIONS
The ELISA kit we evaluated is suitable for the measurement of neuronal autoantibodies. The initial validation demonstrates its potential use in the differential diagnosis of central neuronal system diseases.
Langkamp
Markus
M
Mediagnost Gesellschaft für Forschung und Herstellung von Diagnostika GmbH, Reutlingen, Germany. langkamp@mediagnost.de
Hörnig
Stephanie C
SC
Hörnig
Joachim B
JB
Kirschner
Marion
M
Pridzun
Lutz
L
Kornhuber
Malte E
ME
D000818:Animals; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D002417:Cattle; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D018450:Disease Progression; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D001323:Autoantibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M