SERUM ANTIBODIES FROM MS PATIENTS DO NOT RECOGNIZE HTLV-I, HIV-1, HIV-2 AND SIV

A retroviral aetiology has been proposed for multiple sclerosis (MS). Although there is as yet no definitive evidence of viral involvement, there have been preliminary reports of antiretroviral antibody detecti on in sera from MS patients. Such sera have, for example, been found t o react with HTLV-I. We here describe investigations involving various immunological techniques which attempt to confirm the virus-specific nature of these antibodies against a range of human and macaque retrov iruses. Sera from 25 MS patients, 25 patients with non-associated neur ological diseases and 16 patients with non-neurological conditions wer e tested by immunoblotting methods using lysates of HIV-1-, HIV-2-, HT LV-I- and SIV-infected cells as antigens. None of the sera reacted aga inst any of these retroviral antigens but each serum demonstrated a di stinctive and reproducible reaction pattern against cellular component s of the cells in which the viruses were propagated. Further examinati on of the sera was carried out by ELISA using synthetic oligopeptides covering the HIV-1 Gag p24 protein as antigens. None of the sera react ed with the peptides. Our results suggest that in some MS patients the repeated seropositivity to HTLV-I may be due to the reaction with hos t cell proteins.