Determination of medullasin levels for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

Objectives - To obtain a simple and reliable clinical parameter for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis among patients with neurological diseases. Patients and methods - Heparinized peripheral blood was obtained from patients with multiple sclerosis and those with non-inflammatory neurological diseases and healthy volunteers. A new enzyme immunoassay method determining medullasin levels in human granulocytes was developed by using mouse monoclonal antibody against medullasin. Results - A newly developed enzyme immunoassay method for medullasin can detect as little as 1 ng/ml medullasin and results can be obtained within 2 h. Eighty-five out of 112 patients with multiple sclerosis (75.8%) showed positive results (above means of normals+2 SD) in the medullasin test, while 15.4% (12/78) of patients with non-inflammatory neurological disease had positive results. Conclusion - This newly developed enzyme immunoassay method for medullasin is considered to be a useful paraclinical test for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.