Anti-histone antibodies in subacute sensory neuropathy.

We investigated the levels of anti-histone antibodies in the sera of 7 patients with subacute sensory neuropathy. IgG antibodies to histones H1 and H3 were significantly elevated in 4 of these patients. The anti-H1 antibodies reacted mainly with determinants located in the central globular and the carboxy-terminal domain of the H1 molecule. We also observed reactivity of these sera with histone H1 zero, a variant found in terminally-differentiated cells such as neurons. This study suggests a potential for histones to serve as autoantigens in humorally-mediated paraneoplastic diseases.