Relationship between homogeneous IgG fractions and measles virus antibody activities in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis brain.

Cellulose acetate and agarose gel electrophoresis of pH 7.4 brain extracts from three patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) revealed two to three homogeneous bands in the gamma-globulin region. The IgG concentration in the brain extracts ranged from 6 to 8.5% of the total protein. The IgG was isolated by passing each brain extract twice through gel filtration on Sephadex G-200 column. The Sephadex-isolated IgG preparations, at a concentration of 1 mg/ml, had hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers ranging from 512 to 800, complement fixation (CF) titers of 64 to 100, and neutralizing titers of 400 to 1024 when tested against envelope, nucleocapsids, and while measles virus, respectively. These IgG preparations were further separated into several fractions by isoelectric focusing (IEF) technique and the reactivities of these eluted fractions were examined against differnt specific measles virus components and against whole virus. The results showed that both slow and fast moving homogeneous IgG had high HI and neutralizing titers. However, CF antibodies were present only in specific IEF-eluted fractions and their profiles differed somewhat from one brain to another. The IgG fractions reacted with both kappa-and gamma-chain antisera, but the reactivity varied from one brain to another. When the polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic (PAGE) patterns of heavy (H) and light (L) chains of SSPE IgG were compared to those of IgG from controls, the H chain patterns of both groups were identical whereas the SSPE brain IgG demonstrated two distinct bands in L chain as compared to a single diffuse band observed in controls. These latter results, in addition to homogeneous bands and selective CF antibody activity in IEF eluted IgG fractions from SSPE brain, fulfill some of the criteria of monoclonality.