Vanderbilt on the move

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News from eurolyme. Sriram has worked with Stratton.

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J Infect Dis. 2005 Oct 1;192(7):1219-28. Epub 2005 Sep 2. Related

Articles, Links

Detection of chlamydial bodies and antigens in the central nervous

system of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Sriram S, Ljunggren-Rose A, Yao SY, Whetsell WO Jr.

Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center,

Nashville, Tennessee, USA. subramaniam.sriram@....

To examine a possible relationship between Chlamydia pneumoniae

infection and multiple sclerosis (MS), we undertook an

immunohistochemical (IHC), molecular, and ultrastructural comparison

of central nervous system (CNS) tissue and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

sediment from patients with MS and control individuals with other

neurological diseases (ONDs). In 7 of 20 MS cases, IHC staining was

seen in association with ependymal surfaces and periventricular

regions of formalin-fixed brain tissue, by use of 3 different

antichlamydial antibodies. There was no staining with any of the 3

antichlamydial antibodies in formalin-fixed brain tissue from OND

controls (n=17). With available frozen CNS tissue, polymerase chain

reaction (PCR) studies for the presence of C. pneumoniae genes were

performed. The presence of a PCR signal was confirmed in 5 of 8 MS

cases and in 3 of 18 OND controls. In an examination of CSF sediment

by electron microscopy, we observed electron-dense structures

resembling chlamydial organisms in CSF sediments from 11 of 20 MS

cases and 2 of 12 OND controls. The presence of immunogold-labeled

electron-dense bodies was correlated with the presence of a PCR

signal in 10 of 11 MS cases. Results of studies using these different

approaches support our suspicion of the presence of chlamydial

organisms in the CNS, in a subset of patients with MS.

PMID: 16136465 [PubMed - in process]