Antibodies against light neurofilaments in multiple sclerosis patients

Abstract

Intrathecal IgG antibodies to NFL were elevated in MS patients compared with that in CD patients (P = 0.001) and were not related to clinical variables. No differences in IgM anti-NFL levels were found between the MS and CN/CD groups. IgM to NFL was higher in the CDEG group than in either the CD group or even the MS group (P < 0.0005). CONCLUSIONS - Intrathecal IgM or IgG antibodies to NFL are not useful surrogate markers for axonal damage or disease subtypes in MS.

Patients with Alzheimer disease have elevated intrathecal synthesis of antibodies against tau protein and heavy neurofilament

“…We measured Abs against three neurocytoskeletal proteins using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as described previously (Silber et al, 2002;Bartos et al, 2007aBartos et al, , 2007bFialova et al, 2011). We used 0.125 μg of tau protein/well (Cytoskeleton, Denver, USA), 0.125 μg /well of NFL (Progen, Heidelberg, Germany), and 0.25 μg of NFH/well (Progen, Heidelberg, Germany), and all were done in duplicates.…”

“…Serum antibodies (Abs) against neuron-specific antigens are not only present in patients with autoimmune diseases, but also in healthy individuals (Soussan et al, 1994;Rosenmann et al, 2006b;Bartos et al, 2007aBartos et al, , 2007bNeff et al, 2008;Levin et al, 2010;Dujmovic, 2011;Fialova et al, 2011). These typical neuronal proteins can be cytoskeletal components which include tau proteins, neurofilaments [NFs, triplet protein of light (NFL), medium (NFM) and heavy (NFH) subunits] and tubulins (Soussan et al, 1994;Brandt, 2001;Cairns et al, 2004;Tumani et al, 2008;Kolarova et al, 2012).…”

Glial and Axonal Pathology in Multiple Sclerosis

“…Neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are characterized by accumulation of NF proteins leading to abnormalities in axonal transport and an impending neuronal loss [Amor et al, 2010;Arumugam et al, 2008]. Antibodies to axonal cytoskeletal proteins may be markers of axonal damage, as well as important contributors to neurodegeneration and clinical disability in MS. CSF levels of antibodies against the NFL correlate with disease duration, clinical disability, IgG index, and the degree of cerebral atrophy measured by MRI [Bartos et al, 2007;Eikelenbom, 2003]. Although elevated levels of NFL-specific antibodies are present in sera of patients with PP-MS, these antibodies are also increased in sera of patients with other neurological diseases [Bartos et al, 2007;Huizinga, 2008].…”

Brain antigens in functionally distinct antigen-presenting cell populations in cervical lymph nodes in MS and EAE

“…The cause of neuronal damage is not yet elucidated, but autoreactive B and T cells directed against neuronal antigens could conceivably be instrumental [3]. Indeed, MS patients have increased circulating antibody levels against the neuronal proteins neurofilament light (NF-L) and neurofilament heavy (NF-H) [4][5][6] in serum and against the medium subunit of neurofilament in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) [7]. In addition, T cells from MS patients proliferate in response to the neuronal antigens synapsin and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) [8,9].…”