Increased reactivity to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein peptides and epitope mapping in HLA DR2(15)+ multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a central nervous system-specific inflammatory and demyelinating disease where a myelin-directed autoimmune response is thought to be pathogenetically relevant. Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) is a surface-exposed minor myelin component that is a prime candidate autoantigen. We have investigated peripheral blood lymphocyte responses to synthetic 15-26 amino acids long overlapping MOG peptides in 20 MS patients and 14 healthy controls with the MS-associated HLA haplotype DR2(15). There were significantly increased responses, in terms of numbers of cells secreting IFN-gamma detected by Elispot in response to several MOG-derived peptides in the MS patients, but not the healthy controls. MOG peptide 63-87 evoked the strongest response, and the stimulatory property of this peptide was confirmed in additional DR2(15)+ MS patients where a peptide concentration-dependent proliferative response, which was inhibited by the addition of anti-HLA class II antibodies, was observed. This is the first work detailing putative immunodominant T cell epitopes of MOG in DR2(15)+ MS patients.