About the Authors

Michael Hecker

michael.hecker@rocketmail.com

Affiliation Steinbeis Transfer Center for Proteome Analysis, Rostock, Germany

Brigitte Katrin Paap

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Robert Hermann Goertsches

Affiliation Steinbeis Transfer Center for Proteome Analysis, Rostock, Germany

Ole Kandulski

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Christian Fatum

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Dirk Koczan

Affiliation Institute of Immunology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Hans-Peter Hartung

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Hans-Juergen Thiesen

Affiliation Institute of Immunology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Uwe Klaus Zettl

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts. M Hecker, BK Paap, RH Goertsches, O Kandulski, C Fatum, D Koczan and H-J Thiesen declare no competing interests. UK Zettl received research support as well as speaking fees from Bayer, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Sanofi-Aventis and Teva. H-P Hartung received honoraria for consulting and speaking from Bayer HealthCare, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis and Teva. These competing interests do not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: UKZ H-JT. Performed the experiments: RHG BKP DK. Analyzed the data: MH. Wrote the paper: MH BKP DK H-PH H-JT RHG UKZ. Responsible for patient care and clinical documentation: UKZ OK CF.