The antibody response to oligodendrocyte specific protein in multiple sclerosis

The role of autoantibody responses in pathogenesis or progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) remains controversial. This is partly because the methods that can distinctly identify pathogenic antibody reactivities targeting native membrane proteins from the reactivities that originate as an epiphenomenon in such disease are just emerging. Oligodendrocyte specific protein (OSP or claudin-11) is a candidate autoantigen in MS and CSF reactivity towards OSP has been reported in MS patients. We characterized the autoantibody response to OSP using sensitive cell based assays. In line with a previous report, higher antibody response to OSP 114-120 peptide and denatured protein was observed. However applying assays based on native OSP we did not observe any specific OSP response in MS patients. Our results demonstrate that anti-OSP antibodies do not recognise native glial OSP and may therefore rather represent an epiphenomenon in MS.