Multiple sclerosis-specific central nervous system antigens (MSG2): a blind study.

A blinded study was designed to determine if a glycoprotein fraction, G2, shown in previous studies to be specific for multiple sclerosis (MS), could be isolated from cryopreserved autopsy central nervous system (CNS) tissue. Coded tissue sections were obtained from the Human Neurospecimen Bank, Los Angeles, Calif.; and the code was broken after all data were analyzed. Multiple sections of the CNS from 23 MS patients, 12 patients with other neurologic diseases (OND), and 10 individuals who died as a sudden death were utilized. Crossed immunoisoelectrophoresis (CIE) of G2 against anti-MS cytosol antibodies to MS-specific CNS antigens (MSG2) and tandem CIE of the G2 fraction with a known MSG2 preparation were carried out. MSG2 was found in one or more CNS sections from 78% of MS patients, all sections from MS spinal cord, and no sections from OND or control individuals. We propose that the MSG2 found in the MS CNS may contain a glycoprotein of a persistent virus, such as measles and/or myelin.