Jerry Lin presented the following article in Journal Club last week:
Brennan, K.M., et al., Lipid arrays identify myelin-derived lipids and lipid complexes as prominent targets for oligoclonal band antibodies in multiple sclerosis, J. Neuroimmunol. (2011)
In this article, Brennan et al showed that many of the antibodies found in MS spinal fluid are reactive against lipids, in particular, sulfatides, or myelin derived lipids. However, some of their control antibodies, specifically those from other CNS demyelinating diseases, also showed lipid reactivity. Whether or not this is an MS phenomenon or from any demyelinating remains to be seen. In addition, there are question as to whether lipids are the primary targets of these antibodies. Many of the lipid-reactive control antibodies were also reactive against known proteins of interest in their respective diseases, such as aquaporin-IV in Neuro-Myelitis Optica (NMO) and measles virus antigens in SSPE. The main targets of the MS CSF antibodies is still unknown.
