title: Anti-ganglioside antibodies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis revisited.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with typical onset in the 5th- 6th decade of life. The hypothesis of an autoimmune origin of ALS receives less attention today, but immunological phenomena still seem to be involved and mechanisms such as protective autoimmunity may be important. Detection of antibodies against a variety of gangliosides has been repeatedly described in ALS-patients by several authors, but widely differing frequencies and titres have been reported. Therefore, we investigated the presence of six common antibodies with a commercially available test panel for GA1, GM1, GM2, GD1a, GD1b and GQ1b in a large group of clinically well-characterized ALS patients and compared them to a collective of 200 healthy blood donors.
  
  
  METHODS
  IgG and IgM antibodies to the six gangliosides asialoGM1 (GA1), GM1, GM2, GD1a, GD1b, GQ1b were determined by GanglioCombi ELISA in sera of 84 ALS patients. Results were expressed as a %-ratio of a highly positive control and categorized as negative (<30%), borderline (30-50%), moderately (50-100%) and strongly positive (>100%). The values obtained from 200 Swiss blood donors served as a reference group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In twenty-two (26.2%) ALS-patients elevated anti-ganglioside antibodies could be detected: Taking all subspecific antibodies together, IgG antibodies were found in 9/84 (10.7%) and IgM in 15/84 (17.9%) patients. There was no correlation between age, gender, site of onset or survival and anti-ganglioside-positive/-negative titres in ALS-patients. No statistically significant difference in the frequency of anti-ganglioside antibodies compared to the group of healthy blood donors was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Even with this more comprehensive approach, anti-ganglioside antibody frequencies and patterns in our ALS cohort closely resembled the values measured in healthy controls. In accordance with other studies, we did not observe any association of a distinct ALS phenotype with elevated anti-ganglioside antibodies or an impact on survival.
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Kollewe
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Ulrich
authors: U
authors: Wurster
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Sinzenich
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Sonja
authors: S
authors: Körner
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Reinhard
authors: R
authors: Dengler
authors: Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany; CNS-LAB, International Neuroscience Institute, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Bahram
authors: B
authors: Mohammadi
authors: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
authors: Susanne
authors: S
authors: Petri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D003710:Demography; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis*; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D005732:Gangliosides; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M