Neutralization by human serum samples of a transmissible agent isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of neurological patients.

A transmissible cytotoxic agent thought to be associated with one or more misfolded protein(s) was found in severalcerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from neurological patients. Since some experiments carried out to identify this unusualinfectious factor showed the block of its propagation by rabbit gammaglobulins (IgGs), the search for such anactivity by human IgGs was programmed. Neutralizing assays carried out using human sera as IgGs source showeda blocking property displayed by: twenty serum samples from as many patients with a diagnosis of acute infection,two of ten sera from healthy subjects and four serum samples from patients with lupus erythematous (SLE). Whenneutralizing sera were tested on cell cultures in immunofluorescence assays for the serum ability to label specific protein(s), similar fluorescent pictures resulted in treated and control cells. On the other hand, the SLE serum samplesdisclosed a granulosity of the nuclear material of cytotoxic cells in accordance with the DNA apoptotic laddering reportedin previous papers. Oxidative disorders, as suggested by the immunoblotting analysis of the antioxidant enzymesMn-superoxide dismutase (SOD2) and heme-oxygenase 1 (HO-1), point to an alteration of the oxidative pathwayamong the causes of the DNA damage induced by the cytotoxic transmissible agent under study.