BioProject

Lipids comprise 70% of the myelin sheath, and autoantibodies against lipids may contribute to the demyelination that characterizes multiple sclerosis (MS). More...

Lipids comprise 70% of the myelin sheath, and autoantibodies against lipids may contribute to the demyelination that characterizes multiple sclerosis (MS). We used lipid antigen microarrays and lipid mass spectrometry to identify bona fide lipid targets of the autoimmune response in MS brain and an animal model of MS to explore the role of the identified lipids in autoimmune demyelination. We found that autoantibodies in MS target a phosphate group in phosphatidylserine and oxidized phosphatidylcholine derivatives. Administration of these lipids ameliorated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by suppressing activation and inducing apoptosis of autoreactive T cells, effects mediated by the lipids' saturated fatty-acid side chains. Thus, phospholipids represent a natural anti-inflammatory class of compounds that have potential as novel therapeutics for MS. Overall design: Fig. 2C. Mini-Array II: IgG antibody reactivity to lipids constituting polar head-group and side-chain modifications of PGPC in CSF samples from relapsing remitting MS patients and other neurological disease controls. Lipid hits with the lowest FDR (q=0.016) were clustered according to their reactivity profiles. 19 different lipids were custom-spotted in duplicate using the CAMAG Automatic TLC Sampler (ATS4) robot to spray 200 nl of 10 to 100 pmol of lipids onto PVDF membranes affixed to the surface of microscope slides. The slides were probed with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 26 human patient samples. 27 slides total: 12 relapsing-remitting MS, 13 other neurological disease, 1 healthy control (not included in this submission), and 1 secondary Ab alone (not included in this submission). CSF diluted 1/20. HRP-conjugated secondary Ab (donkey anti-human IgG) diluted 1/8000. ECL for 3 minutes. Less...