Author Of 1 Presentation
P0457 - Evidence of Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin involvement in neuromyelitis optica (ID 896)
Abstract
Background
Two separate studies have reported that up to 23% of multiple sclerosis patients have antibodies against epsilon toxin from Clostridium perfringens, suggesting that the toxin may play a role in the disease.
Objectives
We investigated whether we could detect antibodies to epsilon toxin in the sera of UK patients with clinically definite neuromyelitis optica (NMO), and in age and gender-matched controls.
Methods
We tested sera from NMO patients or controls by Western blotting. We also tested sera for its ability to neutralise epsilon toxin in a cell culture system.
Results
Using Western blotting 50% of samples in the NMO group (n=30) reacted with epsilon toxin monomer or dimer. In the control group (n=20), 5% of the samples reacted. However, we also found reactivity with a band at approximately 50kDa in all groups. We are currently working to identify this 50kDa molecule. None of the sera we tested were able to neutralise epsilon toxin activity towards chinese hamster ovary cells expressing myelin and lymphocyte protein.
Conclusions
Our findings provide evidence that epsilon toxin is involved in the development of NMO. Further work is now required to test a larger cohort of NMO patients and controls and to establish whether epsilon toxin is present in the gut of NMO patients during episodes of disease.