Detection of Chlamydia Pneumoniae in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Multiple Sclerosis Patients and other Neurological Disorders

Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Although the etiology of MS is not completely understood, there is evidence suggesting a role for infectious agents in the pathophysiology of MS. There are evidences of a possible association between MS and Chlamydia pneumonia (CPn), however a consensus on this issue has not been reached. The aim of this study was to shed light on the possible role of CPn in MS by analyzing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients and a control group of patients with other neurological disease (OND) for CPn DNA and anti CPn IgG. We studied 71 CSF samples, including 35 specimen from MS patients and 36 from patients with OND. Collected samples underwent PCR designed to amplify a 207 base pairs (bps) fragment of CPn DNA using omp1 primers specific for omp1 gene and also were analyzed for the presence of anti-CPn IgG by a commercially available Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Successful amplification of a 207 bps fragment, was considered as positive results by PCR. Out of 35 MS patients, 9 (25.7%) samples were positive for CPn while only one sample (2.77%) from OND group showed positive result. The P value for this x2 test with 1 degree of Detection of chlamydia pneumonia 309 freedom is 0.016. That is, the non-homogeneity of positive response between these two groups of experiment and control was significant at the level of less than 0.016 (x=5.94 >x20.016,1=3.84).The mean optical density of samples from patients and control group was 0.17±0.170 and 0.18 ±0.213 respectively (P value= 0.85).Our results are in line with the results reached by the meta-analysis of other studies in this field, and may suggest that CPn probably plays a bystander role in the pathology of MS. Past exposure to CPn is nearly equal in MS and controls, but owing to infecting immune cells, CPn is more frequently detected in the site of inflammation (CSF) as evidenced by PCR. This view is also supported by studies which show that use of antibiotics active against CPn is not associated with a decreased risk of MS and that MS patients do not benefit from antibiotic treatment against CPn.