Serum lipid antibodies are associated with cerebral tissue damage in multiple sclerosis Rohit Bakshi, MD ABSTRACT Ada Yeste, PhD Objective: To determine whether peripheral immune responses as measured by serum antigen Bonny Patel, MSc arrays are linked to cerebral MRI measures of disease severity in multiple sclerosis (MS). Shahamat Tauhid, MD Methods: In this cross-sectional study, serum samples were obtained from patients with Subhash Tummala, MD relapsing-remitting MS (n 5 21) and assayed using antigen arrays that contained 420 antigens Roya Rahbari, PhD including CNS-related autoantigens, lipids, and heat shock proteins. Normalized compartment- Renxin Chu, MD specific global brain volumes were obtained from 3-tesla MRI as surrogates of atrophy, including Keren Regev, MD gray matter fraction (GMF), white matter fraction (WMF), and total brain parenchymal fraction Pia Kivisäkk, MD, PhD (BPF). Total brain T2 hyperintense lesion volume (T2LV) was quantified from fluid-attenuated Howard L. Weiner, MD inversion recovery images. Francisco J. Quintana, PhD Results: We found serum antibody patterns uniquely correlated with BPF, GMF, WMF, and T2LV. Furthermore, we identified immune signatures linked to MRI markers of neurodegeneration (BPF, GMF, WMF) that differentiated those linked to T2LV. Each MRI measure was correlated with a Correspondence to specific set of antibodies. Strikingly, immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to lipids were linked to Dr. Quintana: brain MRI measures. Based on the association between IgG antibody reactivity and each unique
[email protected] MRI measure, we developed a lipid index. This comprised the reactivity directed against all of the lipids associated with each specific MRI measure. We validated these findings in an additional independent set of patients with MS (n 5 14) and detected a similar trend for the correlations between BPF, GMF, and T2LV vs their respective lipid indexes.