The bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae can trigger Guillain-Barre syndrome in which the body's immune attacks the nerves and incites paralysis, according to a recent study published in the journal Annals of Neurology.
For the study, researchers tested 189 adult and 24 child GBS patients for the presence of antibodies to mycoplasma, which would indicate a recent bacterial infection, and anti- galactocerebroside antibodies, which are known indicators for GBS. They then compared these patients with 677 healthy controls.
Analysis revealed 3 percent of adults and 21 percent of children in the GBS cohort had a recent mycoplasma infection. Among the healthy controls, none of the adults and 7 percent of children tested positive for the bacterial antibodies.
Additionally, the anti-GalC antibodies found in patients without GBS were all of the antibody isotype M, which is the earliest antibody elicited in an immune response. Among the participants with GBS, the anti-GalC antibodies were of the isotype IgG, indicating an isotype class switch.
"We therefore assume that this class switch of the antibody isotype may contribute to the pathogenesis of GBS," said Patrick Meyer Sauteur, MD, with the Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology at University Children's Hospital in Zurich, and the study's first author. "In fact, this antibody isotype class switch is also assumed as a critical step in the development of other autoimmune diseases. Immunotherapies based on that premise may thus be a new possible treatment option for GBS."
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