Selective removal of anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies and IgG in vitro with an immunoadsorbent containing immobilized sulfathiazole.
Adsorption therapy, which treats the autoimmune disease by the selective removal of pathogenic substances from the blood, is an active subject. In this therapy, bioactive molecules such as antigen, antibodies and protein A are usually used as affinity-ligands. The disadvantages of using these substances as affinity-ligands are the availability, sterilizability, and ability to cause antigenic reactions. After surveying hundreds of synthetic compounds, it was found that polyacrylic beads [Eupergit C (EC)] immobilized covalently with sulfathiazole (ST) are an ideal biomimetic ligand for the selective adsorption of IgG (24.3 +/- 0.4 mg IgG/g wet beads). In an in vitro study, this adsorbent selectively removed the antiacetylcholine (AChR) receptor antibody of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients. Further experiments demonstrated that the Fab fragment was adsorbed three times more efficiently than the Fc fragment of IgG.