On the nature of endogenous antiexcitatory factors in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with demyelinating neurological disease

✍ Scribed by Heinrich Brinkmeier; Markus J. Seewald; Kurt H. Wollinsky; Reinhardt Rüdel

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 840 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-639X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4598(199601)19:1<54::aid-mus7>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with demyelinating neurological disease, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome or multiple sclerosis, contains factors that inhibit the excitatory Na+ current. Such antiexcitatory factors are occasionally also detectable in CSF from patients with other neurological diseases but were absent from an artificial CSF containing all major CSF constituents (electrolytes, amino acids, vitamins, metabolites, albumin). In an attempt to characterize these factors, unphysiological pCa or pH values were excluded by the application of the Ca2' chelator EGTA and the use of buffers. Heating the CSF for 10 min to 95°C or digesting it with proteases did not destroy the antiexcitatory potency. Fractionation of the CSF contents according to molecular weight showed that the factors have a molecular weight <3 kD. This excludes proteins, such as antibodies or cytokines, as candidates.

Small peptides are known to be resistant to some proteases and heating. 0 1996