Patent ID: 8148084

Claim:
A method of detecting the presence of autoantibodies to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) in a subject, the method comprising: obtaining a sample comprising serum or CSF from the subject; contacting the sample with a multimeric polypeptide, wherein the multimeric polypeptide comprises two or more fusion polypeptides comprising (i) a first portion comprising an antigenic extracellular domain of MOG comprising the sequence RISPGKNATGMEVGWYRS (SEQ ID NO:24); and (ii) a second portion comprising a multimerizing domain linked to the first portion, optionally via a linker, under conditions that allow binding of the multimeric polypeptide to antibodies present in the sample, if any, to thereby form multimeric polypeptide/antibody complexes; and detecting the presence of said multimeric polypeptide/antibody complexes in the sample, wherein the presence of multimeric polypeptide/antibody complexes in the sample indicates the presence of autoantibodies to MOG in the subject.