Antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that are produced by B cells of our immune system to specifically recognize and bind antigens.ย ย Antigens are molecules that instigateย antibody production and can be from an invading pathogen or from our own body.ย Each antibody recognizes a specific antigenย creating a repertoire of millions of distinct antibodies that can neutralize invaders or attack our own bodyโs proteins.ย ย
This information will be potentially useful for diagnosis, identifying disease subgroups and describing the disease course for ME/CFS and FM.ย
Earlier this year the Batemanย Horne Center partnered withย Serimmune, Inc to begin to characterize the ME/CFS and FM antibody repertoire.ย Our aim in this partnership is to identify novel antibody biomarkers and to determine the immune histories of ME/CFS and FM patients compared to healthy controls. BHC provided blood from 150 ME/CFS, FM and healthy controls from our biobank of clinically-characterized samples.ย ย Serimmuneย began analyzing the blood using their platformย dubbedย SERA (Serum Epitope Repertoire Analysis). Hereโs how SERA works.ย The blood sample is mixed with special bacteria that have been made to express specific antigens on their surface.ย If there are antibodies in the blood that recognize the displayed antigens, the antibody binds to the bacteria and the complex is separated out. The antigen is sequenced and the differences in antibody repertoire between ME/CFS, FM and healthy controls are determined.ย
Six months after providingย Serimmuneย with the samples, the preliminary results are in and are interesting!
Theย analysis identified a set ofย antibody species that occur more often in patients with ME/CFS and FM than in healthy controls.ย Through this analysis we aim to map antigens back toย particular organismsย in the environment that may give rise to these antibodies in some ME/CFS and FM patients.ย
This preliminary result was intriguing enough that the next batch of 150 blood samples was sent toย Serimmuneย last week to confirm these results as well as expand the number of antigensย that are recognized.ย We hope to publish these results in early 2019.
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