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Objective – Paired serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens were investigated for Chlamydia pneumoniae-specific oligoclonal bands (OCBs) to determine band specificity in multiple sclerosis (MS). Material and methods – Serum and CSF samples were collected from patients with relapsing–remitting MS (n = 56), other inflammatory (n = 18) or non-inflammatory (n = 15) neurologic diseases, and from 10 healthy controls. OCBs were determined with affinity immunoblotting of C. pneumoniae-specific IgG onto antigen-coated nitrocellulose paper after protein separation with agarose isoelectric focusing. Results – Chlamydia pneumoniae-specific OCBs were present in 5 of 56 patients with MS, and in 3 of 18 patients with other inflammatory neurologic diseases. Conclusions – The intrathecal production of C. pneumoniae-specific oligoclonal IgG occurs in a minority of patients with MS. This intrathecal anti-C. pneumoniae reactivity is likely part of a polyspecific humoral immune response in MS.

A simple and reliable enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for the measurement of anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies. The test utilizes a membrane-bound AChR obtained from a human rhabdomyosarcoma cell line (TE671) as antigen and employs an affinity-purified rabbit anti-human immunoglobulin G alkaline phosphatase-conjugated antibody as labelled antibody. To assess the sensitivity and the specificity of our assay we tested serum samples from 13 anti-AChR antibody-positive myasthenia gravis (MG) patients known to contain between 2 and 120 nmol/l of anti-AChR antibody, three anti-AChR antibody-negative MG patients, and 70 control subjects including patients with other neurological and autoimmune diseases. A panel of six different anti-AChR monoclonal antibodies and membranes from a AChR-negative rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cell line (PC 12) were also used in competitive studies. The test showed to be specific and able to detect as low as 2.0 nmol/l of anti-AChR antibodies. Moreover, we found a good correspondence between anti-AChR antibody levels measured in the serum samples tested by our assay and levels measured by the routinely adopted radioimmuno assay (RIA) using human-AChR (r = 0.96). Cross-reaction phenomena were observed only using serum samples containing high-titer anti-DNA antibodies. The proposed ELISA, circumventing the limitation of the commonly used RIA (radioactivity and amputated legs as source of human antigen), can be considered as an useful screening test for the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis.

We report a case of herpetic brainstem encephalitis (HBE) retrospectively diagnosed in an adult patient. Conventional immunovirological studies failed to disclose the etiology of this patient's affection. An isoelectric focusing-antigen overlay (IEF-O) technique showed that the target of one of the four cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands was herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 glycoprotein B, indicating a specific anti-HSV immunoresponse restricted to the CNS. IEF-O may represent a useful support for in vivo diagnosis of HBE.