One-way humoral immune cross-reactivity between bovine spinal cord protein and bovine myelin basic protein.

Whether bovine myelin basic protein (BP) and bovine spinal cord protein (SCP) cross-react at the humoral immune level was assessed with a sensitive solid-phase enzyme immunoassay. We found that a hyperimmune anti-SCP serum reacted strongly with SCP and cross-reacted nearly as well with BP. A hyperimmune anti-BP serum reacted only with BP. Antigenic competition analysis revealed that SCP and BP both inhibited binding of the hyperimmune anti-SCP serum to solid-phase adsorbed SCP and BP, while only BP inhibited binding of the hyperimmune anti-BP serum to solid-phase adsorbed BP. Finally, BP cross-reactivity antibodies were present in early bleedings from rabbits immunized with SCP that had been passed through an anti-BP immunosorbent column. These results clearly show there is a one-way humoral immune cross-reactivity between SCP and BP which goes in the direction of SCP to BP.