Why the study?
Does the frequency of B cells producing antibodies to myelin basic protein and measles virus differ in patients with multiple sclerosis compared to controls?
Does the frequency of B cells producing antibodies to myelin basic protein and measles virus differ in patients with multiple sclerosis compared to controls?
Patients with multiple sclerosis exhibit a higher frequency of circulating B cells producing antibodies to measles virus, but not to myelin basic protein, with no evidence of cross-reactivity between the two.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Elevated measles-specific B cells in MS support further study of viral triggers; does not implicate MBP and leaves open clinical implications.
Antibody-producing B lymphocytes were polyclonally activated and transformed, by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), into multiple B lymphoblastoid cell lines in a microculture system. The frequencies of B precursor cells producing antibodies to myelin basic protein (MBP) and measles virus were analyzed in peripheral blood of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and control subjects. Measles virus-specific B cells were detected at a significantly higher frequency in MS patients (n = 10, P less than 0.005) than patients with other neurological diseases (n = 10) and normal subjects (n = 10). In contrast, the frequencies of B cells producing anti-MBP antibodies and natural antibodies did not differ statistically among the three groups tested (P greater than 0.05). In addition, the anti-MBP antibodies produced by a panel of stable B cell lines obtained were found to react selectively with an epitope(s) within the C-terminal half fragment 90-171 of the human MBP molecule. In our experiments, no antibody cross-reactivity between MBP and measles virus could be detected in a total of 2760 B cell cultures.
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Jingwu et al. (1991) studied this question.
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