Antibodies against central nervous system tissue (anti-CNS) detected by ELISA and western blotting: marker antibodies for neuropsychiatric manifestations in connective tissue diseases.

Organ specific antibodies against epitopes of the central nervous system (CNS) tissue were detected by ELISA and Western blotting (WB) in sera from patients with ANA positive collagen disorders using a 100,000 g supernatant from beef or rat brain. The corresponding CNS-antigens consist of six major determinants at molecular weights 29, 48, 56, 68 kD and six minor determinants at 130, 110, 86, 60, 38, 34 kD. All except the 38 kD polypeptide were organ specific. Forty-six of 91 patients with ANA positive collagen disorders reacted with at least one of these determinants; 43 of them had cerebral symptoms in contrast to only three of the 43 anti-CNS negative patients. Sera from patients with other disorders did not react with these epitopes. We conclude that anti-CNS antibodies detected by Western blotting may be marker for neuropsychiatric manifestations in patients with collagen disorders.