Abstract
Purpose and Design: Microbial agents showing molecular mimicry to self‐antigens have been reported to initiate an autoimmune pathology in several diseases, including Sydenham's chorea, rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Cows affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) have been shown to have antibodies to Acinetobacter species, microbes that are known to possess bacterial antigens showing molecular mimicry with brain antigens. In this study, the possibility that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD) have elevated antibodies to bacterial and brain antigens was investigated.
Materials and Methods: Serum samples from different groups of patients, including 53 with MS, 20 with RA, 20 with AS, two with sCJD, 18 with cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and 20 with viral encephalitis, as well as 29 healthy control subjects were tested using the enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method for the determination of antibodies against Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, Proteus and Escherichia microbes, as well as myelin basic protein (MBP) brain antigens.
Results: Significantly elevated levels of IgA and IgG antibodies to Acinetobacter and MBP were observed in sera of MS and sCJD patients when compared with patients with encephalitis, CVA, AS, RA as well as 29 healthy blood donors. Furthermore, MS patients had shown a significant correlation between anti‐Acinetobacter and anti‐MBP antibody levels. Anti‐Klebsiella antibodies were found to be elevated only in AS patients and anti‐Proteus antibodies elevated only in RA patients.
Conclusions: MS and possibly sCJD could develop as the result of an autoimmune response to Acinetobacter bacteria. The possible role of this microbe in evoking autoimmune responses in MS or sCJD requires further evaluation.