What I Found

 

The major goal of my research of MS was to obtain supporting evidence regarding my suspicion that milk contributed to MS was correct. It occurred to me that for milk to play a major role in the initiation of MS it must contain antigens with a high sequence similarity to myelin sheath proteins. I began educating myself by reading about DNA and protein sequencing beginning with Bioinformatics for Dummies. I discovered that a relatively simple dot matrix (cross table) approach could be used to analyze protein sequence simililarity and that milk and myelin sheath protein sequencing data was available to the general public on line at www.uniprot.org. I analyzed 24 milk proteins for similarity to myelin sheath proteins (MOG, MBP and MOBP) and discovered the highest level of similarity between the milk protein butyrophilin and MOG (Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein) . 

 

 

Protein combinations

 

Proteins consist of chains that are made up of links called amino acids. There are 20 primary amino acids. The sequence that these amino acids (links of the chain) are in form a pattern. The immune system uses this pattern to detect the presence of foreign proteins (antigens). For each link there is a possibility of attaching to 20 different links (amino acids). This means that the number of combinations for 2 links is 20 and the number of combinations for 3 links is 400 (20 X 20). As the chain length increases the number of possible combinations continues to increase.

​

 

Butyrophilin

​

The milk protein butyrophilin has 59 chain sequence matches (46%) of amino acids with the nerve sheath protein Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG) over a 128 chain link sequence. The probability of 59 chain sequence matches occurring randomly in two proteins is 1 in 5 X 10(75). To put this in perspective the estimated number of atoms in the known universe is 10(80). The 46% sequence match makes it possible for the immune system to mistakenly think MOG is the antigen (butyrophilin). A 46% sequence match is likely sufficient to induce an MS autoimmune reaction. See related articles below.

​

​

Sources

​

International Immunology, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 489±499

doi: 10.1093/intimm/dxh049 2004 The Japanese Society for Immunology

“Tolerance induction by molecular mimicry: prevention and suppression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis with the milk protein butyrophilin”

Paula Man, Melinda Goodyear, Claude Bernard, Ryo Tomioka,

Manuel Freire-Garabal and David Lin

 

Copyright © 2000 by The American Association of Immunologists

“Butyrophilin, a Milk Protein, Modulates the Encephalitogenic T Cell Response to Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis”

Andreas Stefferl, Anna Schubart, Maria Storch, Aminullah Amini, Ian Mather,

Hans Lassmann, and Christopher Linington

 

Molecules. 2018 Feb; 23(2): 328.

Published online 2018 Feb 4. doi: 10.3390/molecules23020328

“Prediction of Disordered Regions and Their Roles in the Anti-Pathogenic and Immunomodulatory Functions of Butyrophilins”

Elrashdy M. Redwan, Ahmed M. Al-Hejin, Hussein A. Almehdar, Abdelrahman M. Elsaway, and Vladimir N. Uversky