A new paper
published in the New England Journal of Medicine is the first research to
identify a specific immune target in MS, a protein known as Kir4.1. Until
this discovery, a specific antigen (a substance that evokes the production of
one or more antibodies) in MS has not been found. In this study, the immune
response to this target was seen in 47 percent of the people with MS.
Autoantibodies
are not the primary cause of MS, but as a secondary response, they may give
researchers a better idea of what is causing the breakdown in the central
nervous system of people with MS.
For this
study, researchers from the Technical University of Munich in Germany obtained
serum from 397 people with MS, 329 people with other neurological conditions,
and 59 healthy serum donors.
When
researchers tested the IgG levels in the blood of the people with MS, they
found a very specific reaction to the protein KIR4.1. IgG stands for
Immunoglobin G, which is the main antibody found in our blood. Antibodies are
major components of the immune system. When something is presented in the body
that is seen as foreign, like a virus or bacteria, the immune system goes after
the invader, and the white blood cells produce an antibody. This antibody is
like a footprint marker leading back to the “invader” – it can tell
us what the body sees as foreign.
The
researchers found there was an immune system response to KIR4.1 KIR4.1 is a
potassium channel protein which is vitally important to myelination, neuronal
plasticity, and the inflammatory response.
“We
found no significant differences in the prevalences or titers of serum
anti-KIR4.1 antibodies among persons with a clinically isolated syndrome, those
with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and those with progressive
multiple sclerosis and observed no correlations between KIR4.1 antibody
positivity and age, clinical characteristics, or characteristics of the
cerebrospinal fluid,” the authors wrote.
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