Anti-MOG antibodies may be marker of early MS

A new technique for identifying antibodies in human serum may help shed light on the involvement of antibodies in MS, particularly in the early stages of MS. This technique, used by researchers from San Francisco and France, detected IgG antibodies in serum that bound to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) located in the membranes of cells.

MOG is normally found in the membranes of oligodendrocytes, so this technique may be more representative of normal conditions than techniques in which MOG is bound to some type of solid-phase matrix and therefore is not in its natural conformation. Indeed, the new technique detected IgG antibodies that the solid-phase assay did not find. Furthermore, these antibodies were most often detected in the serum of people with clinically isolated syndromes (CIS) and relapsing-remitting MS, not very often in secondary progressive MS, and not at all in primary progressive MS. The authors note that antibodies that bind to membrane-bound MOG have been found in marmosets induced with EAE even before the onset of clinical symptoms. Therefore, these antibodies may be a factor in the early development of MS and may also turn out to be a biomarker for early MS.