@article{17404,
  keywords = {Antigen-Antibody Complex, Blotting, Western, Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel, Humans, Leprosy, lepromatous, Myelin Basic Protein},
  author = {Córsico B and Croce M V and Mukherjee R and Segal-Eiras A},
  title = {Identification of myelin basic proteins in circulating immune complexes associated with lepromatous leprosy.},
  abstract = {<p>Circulating immune complexes (CIC) were first measured in lepromatous patients (LL) by the 125I-C1q binding assay and the polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation test. High levels were found by both methods (95 and 90% of positives, respectively). LL-CIC were investigated for the presence of neural antigens. CIC were precipitated in 3.5% PEG, filtered through protein A-Sepharose affinity chromatography, eluted with glycine-HCl, pH 2.8, and washed with PBS; fractions after CIC dissociation were studied by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The LL-CIC PEG precipitates and the glycine-HCl eluates were positive in 76 and 71% respectively against anti-myelin basic proteins (MBP) monoclonal antibody, showing a single band at 15-25 kDa similar to the one obtained incubating MBP with anti-MBP. No reaction was detected with CIC-PBS fractions; strips were incubated with other anti-neural antibodies such as anti-glial fibrillary acidic proteins, anti-S-100, and anti-neurofilaments, without any reactivity. Our results demonstrate that LL-CIC contain MBP as an antigen; its significance could be related to the pathogenesis of leprosy since the liberation of MBP after Mycobacterium leprae nerve damage may elicit anti-MBP autoantibodies to myelin breakdown, which reacts with peripheral nerve MBP inducing CIC formation. This mechanism may be important in demyelination and destruction of nerve in leprosy.</p>},
  year = {1994},
  journal = {Clinical immunology and immunopathology},
  volume = {71},
  pages = {38-43},
  month = {1994 Apr},
  issn = {0090-1229},
  doi = {10.1006/clin.1994.1049},
  language = {eng},
}