Ganglioside Antibodies in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Introduction: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with typical onset in the 5th- 6th decade of life. The earlier hypothesis of an autoimmune origin of ALS receives less attention today, but immunological phenomena still seem to be involved and mechanisms such as protective autoimmunity may be important. Antibodies against a variety of gangliosides also occur in ALS, but widely differing frequencies and titers have been reported. We investigated the presence of IgG and IgM antibodies ALS patients. Methods: IgG and IgM antibodies to the six gangliosides asialoGM1 (GA1),…