Association of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis with multiple sclerosis in Sardinian patients.
case_control · Level III
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 21533236.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0018482 and PMC identifier 3076380.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection is highly spread in the ruminant herds of Sardinia, in the Western Mediterranean. The objective of this study was to investigate prevalence of MAP infection in association with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using clinical specimen from patients and controls. We analyzed samples for the presence of MAP specific DNA and to demonstrate humoral response to a MAP protein (MAP2694), a predicted homologue of the T-cell receptor gamma-chain/complement component 1 of the host. We found presence of MAP DNA in 42% of the MS patients and an extremely significant humoral immune response revealed by the MS patients against the MAP protein. In our opinion, this is the first report that significantly associates MAP infection with MS. Further studies will be required to confirm if MAP could be one of the triggers of MS, according to the molecular mimicry theory, in susceptible (and genetically at risk) individuals.
Medical subject headings
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis
- Paratuberculosis