Anti-aαB-crystallin immunoreactivity in inflammatory nervous system diseases

alphaB-Crystallin, a small heat shock protein, is an immunodominant antigen with increased tissue expression in demyelination. To investigate the humoral response against alphaB-crystallin, the sera and CSF samples of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), neuro-Behcet's disease (NBD) and other non-inflammatory neurological diseases (NIND) were screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for anti-alphaB-crystallin IgG and IgM antibodies. Serum and CSF IgG antibody responses to alphaB-crystallin were significantly elevated only in NBD patients (serum IgG, NBD 1.29+/-0.49 vs. NIND 0.95+/-0.39, P=0.01; CSF IgG, NBD 1.22+/-0.64 vs. NIND 0.81+/-0.35, P=0.01). Similarly, high serum IgM antibody titres were also detected in NBD (1.83+/-0.72 vs. 1.16+/-0.49, P=0.0005) and in MS (1.57+/-1.07, P=0.046), whereas elevated CSF IgM responses were observed only in GBS (2.09+/-1.09 vs. 1.41+/-0.7, P=0.007). Humoral responses against alphaB-crystallin are increased in NBD and GBS, which may implicate this central nervous system antigen in the causation and pathogenesis of these inflammatory nervous system disorders.