Abstract
Elevated B lymphocyte activating factor BAFF levels have been reported in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients; moreover, disease-modifying treatments (DMT) have shown to influence blood BAFF levels in MS patients, although the significance of these changes is still controversial. In addition, BAFF levels were reported increased during infectious diseases. In our study, we wanted to investigate on the serum BAFF concentrations correlated to the antibody response against Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and their human homologous epitopes in MS and in patients affected with other neurological diseases (OND), divided in Inflammatory Neurological Diseases (IND), Non Inflammatory Neurological Diseases (NIND) and Undetermined Neurological Diseases (UND), in comparison to healthy controls (HCs). Our results confirmed a statistically significant high BAFF levels in MS and IND patients in comparison to HCs but not NIND and UND patients. Interestingly, BAFF levels were inversely proportional to antibodies level against EBV and MAP peptides and the BAFF levels significantly decreased in MS patients after methylprednisolone therapy. These results implicate that lower circulating BAFF concentrations were present in MS patients with humoral response against MAP and EBV. In conclusion MS patients with no IgGs against EBV and MAP may support the hypothesis that elevated blood BAFF levels could be associated with a more stable disease.
Highlights
Elevated B lymphocyte activating factor BAFF levels have been reported in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients; disease-modifying treatments (DMT) have shown to influence blood BAFF levels in MS patients, the significance of these changes is still controversial
We wanted to investigate on the serum BAFF concentrations correlated to the antibody response against Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and their human homologous epitopes in MS and in patients affected with other neurological diseases (OND), divided in Inflammatory Neurological Diseases (IND), Non Inflammatory Neurological Diseases (NIND) and Undetermined Neurological Diseases (UND), in comparison to healthy controls (HCs)
Since BAFF has been implicated in the strength of the antibody responses against to different infections[8,10] and MAP and EBV have been associated to MS14–19, we investigated on the correlation between the humoral response against MAP and EBV specific epitopes, their human homologous peptides (MBP and IRF5) and plasma BAFF concentration
Summary
Elevated B lymphocyte activating factor BAFF levels have been reported in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients; disease-modifying treatments (DMT) have shown to influence blood BAFF levels in MS patients, the significance of these changes is still controversial. B-cell activating factor (BAFF), a member of the tumor necrosis factor family, is the major survival factor for B cells[5] It has an essential role in B-cell homeostasis and in the development of several autoimmune diseases, (i.e. systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, primary Sjögren’s, myasthenia gravis, systemic sclerosis, Graves’ disease), BAFF blood levels were higher during different infectious diseases and its role in the maintenance of inflammation has been recognized[1,6,7,8,9,10]. Data concerning the BAFF serum circulating levels in MS patients are controversial and a significant difference in MS compared to healthy controls (HCs) has not been always demonstrated[11,12,13] For this reason we wanted to investigate the correlation of serum BAFF levels and antibodies titer against selected peptides derived from Epstein-Barr Virus and Mycobacterium avium subspecies www.nature.com/scientificreports/. Others studies reported that treatment with IFN-βwas associated with higher serum BAFF levels[6]
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