Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Brain Behav Immun. 2010 Aug;24(6):1018-24. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2010.03.002. Epub 2010 Mar 18.
Some Lyme disease patients report debilitating chronic symptoms of pain, fatigue, and cognitive deficits despite recommended courses of antibiotic treatment. The mechanisms responsible for these symptoms, collectively referred to as post-Lyme disease syndrome (PLS) or chronic Lyme disease, remain unclear. We investigated the presence of immune system abnormalities in PLS by assessing the levels of antibodies to neural proteins in patients and controls. Serum samples from PLS patients, post-Lyme disease healthy individuals, patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, and normal healthy individuals were analyzed for anti-neural antibodies by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. Anti-neural antibody reactivity was found to be significantly higher in the PLS group than in the post-Lyme healthy (p<0.01) and normal healthy (p<0.01) groups. The observed heightened antibody reactivity in PLS patients could not be attributed solely to the presence of cross-reactive anti-borrelia antibodies, as the borrelial seronegative patients also exhibited elevated anti-neural antibody levels. Immunohistochemical analysis of PLS serum antibody activity demonstrated binding to cells in the central and peripheral nervous systems. The results provide evidence for the existence of a differential immune system response in PLS, offering new clues about the etiopathogenesis of the disease that may prove useful in devising more effective treatment strategies.
一些莱姆病患者尽管接受了推荐疗程的抗生素治疗，但仍报告出现衰弱性慢性疼痛、疲劳和认知缺陷等症状。这些症状的发生机制，统称为莱姆病后综合征（PLS）或慢性莱姆病，目前仍不清楚。我们通过评估患者和对照组中针对神经蛋白的抗体水平，来研究 PLS 中是否存在免疫系统异常。通过免疫印迹和免疫组织化学分析，检测 PLS 患者、莱姆病后健康个体、系统性红斑狼疮患者和正常健康个体的血清样本中针对神经的抗体。结果发现，PLS 组的抗神经抗体反应明显高于莱姆病后健康组（p<0.01）和正常健康组（p<0.01）。在 PLS 患者中观察到的这种增强的抗体反应不能仅仅归因于存在交叉反应性抗伯氏疏螺旋体抗体，因为伯氏疏螺旋体血清阴性的患者也表现出升高的抗神经抗体水平。对 PLS 血清抗体活性的免疫组织化学分析表明，其与中枢和外周神经系统中的细胞结合。这些结果为 PLS 中存在差异的免疫系统反应提供了证据，为该疾病的病因发病机制提供了新的线索，这可能有助于制定更有效的治疗策略。
