Augmentation of Autoantibodies by Helicobacter pylori in Parkinson's Disease Patients May Be Linked to Greater Severity

PLoS One. 2016 Apr 21;11(4):e0153725. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153725. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Its etiology remains elusive and at present only symptomatic treatments exists. Helicobacter pylori chronically colonizes the gastric mucosa of more than half of the global human population. Interestingly, H. pylori positivity has been found to be associated with greater of PD motor severity. In order to investigate the underlying cause of this association, the Sengenics Immunome protein array, which enables simultaneous screening for autoantibodies against 1636 human proteins, was used to screen the serum of 30 H. pylori-seropositive PD patients (case) and 30 age- and gender-matched H. pylori-seronegative PD patients (control) in this study. In total, 13 significant autoantibodies were identified and ranked, with 8 up-regulated and 5 down-regulated in the case group. Among autoantibodies found to be elevated in H. pylori-seropositive PD were included antibodies that recognize Nuclear factor I subtype A (NFIA), Platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGFB) and Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A3 (eIFA3). The presence of elevated autoantibodies against proteins essential for normal neurological functions suggest that immunomodulatory properties of H. pylori may explain the association between H. pylori positivity and greater PD motor severity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Autoantibodies / blood
  • Autoantibodies / immunology*
  • Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-4A / immunology
  • Female
  • Helicobacter Infections / blood
  • Helicobacter Infections / complications*
  • Helicobacter Infections / immunology*
  • Helicobacter Infections / microbiology
  • Helicobacter pylori / immunology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • NFI Transcription Factors / immunology
  • Parkinson Disease / blood
  • Parkinson Disease / complications*
  • Parkinson Disease / immunology*
  • Parkinson Disease / microbiology
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-sis / immunology

Substances

  • Autoantibodies
  • NFI Transcription Factors
  • NFIA protein, human
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-sis
  • Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-4A

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the University of Malaya-Ministry of Education (UM-MoE) High Impact Research (HIR) Grant UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOE/CHAN/13/4 (Account No. H-50001-00-A000029). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.