MOG-IgG Optic Neuritis

Optic neuritis is the most common cause of optic neuropathy in young patients, which can cause debilitating vision loss and blindness. Two novel glial autoantibodies have been discovered that better characterize a subset of patients with optic neuritis. In 2004, antibodies against an astrocytic water channel, aquaporin-4 (AQP4) were discovered, which greatly improved our understanding and detection of the clinical entity neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). More recently, antibodies specific for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-IgG), have been found in a subset of patients with optic neuritis and other demyelinating phenotypes. Although initially erroneously associated with multiple sclerosis in early literature with use of solid-phase assays, newer live transfected cell-based assays have shown MOG-IgG to be a reproducible marker for a subset of patients with optic neuritis, AQP4-IgG seronegative inflammatory CNS demyelinating disorders with NMOSD-like phenotype, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM).