Binding properties of cerebrospinal fluid IgG in multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases

A solid phase radioimmunoassay (RIA) was used to detect antibodies to myelin or myelin basic protein (MBP) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) or other neurological diseases (OND). When measured at the same IgG concentration, MS samples had higher binding values than OND against myelin, but not against MBP. Using F(ab')2 fragments purified from pools of MS and OND CSF there was no difference in binding to myelin between MS and OND samples. These results indicate that anti-MBP antibodies are nt a feature of MS and binding of CSF IgG to myelin is not due to specific antibody, but is probably the result of non-specific binding to Fc receptors.