Serum titers of IgG antibodies against tetanus and diphtheria toxoids and risk of multiple sclerosis

Abstract

We conducted a prospective nested case-control study among military service members to investigate whether antibodies against tetanus or diphtheria predict multiple sclerosis (MS) risk. Paired T-tests were used to compare means of anti-tetanus and diphtheria toxoids among 56 MS cases and 112 matched controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR). There were no differences between the mean serum IgG antibodies against tetanus (p-value 0.28) or diphtheria (p-value 0.45) in the baseline samples. The OR of MS associated with 1 standard deviation difference in antibody titers was 0.76 (95% CI: 0.48-1.21) for tetanus (SD=4.71) and 1.03 (0.73-1.45) for diphtheria (SD=0.87). Results of this study suggest serum IgG antibodies against tetanus or diphtheria are not predictors of MS risk.