Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Nov 3;19(1):68.
doi: 10.1186/s12868-018-0471-7.

The significance of anti-neuronal antibodies for acute psychiatric disorders: a retrospective case-controlled study

Affiliations

The significance of anti-neuronal antibodies for acute psychiatric disorders: a retrospective case-controlled study

Morten B Schou et al. BMC Neurosci. .

Abstract

Background: The clinical significance of anti-neuronal antibodies in patients with psychiatric disorders, but without encephalitis, remains unknown. In patients admitted to acute psychiatric inpatient care we aimed to identify clinical features distinguishing anti-neuronal antibody positive patients from matched controls.

Results: Patients who were serum-positive to N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) (n = 21), contactin-associated protein 2 (CASPR2) (n = 14) and/or glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) (n = 9) antibodies (cases) were age and sex matched (1:2) with serum-negative patients from the same cohort (controls). The prevalence and severity of psychiatric symptoms frequently encountered in NMDAR, CASPR2 and GAD65 antibody associated disorders were compared in cases and controls. NMDAR, CASPR2 and GAD65 antibody positive patients did not differ in their clinical presentation from matched serum negative controls.

Conclusion: In this cohort, patients with and without NMDAR, CASPR2 and GAD65 antibodies admitted to acute psychiatric inpatient care had similar psychiatric phenotypes. This does not exclude their clinical relevance in subgroups of patients, and studies further investigating the clinical significance of anti-neuronal antibodies in patients with psychiatric symptomatology are needed.

Keywords: Anti-neuronal antibodies; Mental disorders; NMDA receptor antibodies; Psychoneuroimmunology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart over patient recruitment, cases, and controls. aThree patients were positive for both NMDAR and GAD65 antibodies. bImmunglobulin (Ig) isotype 11/3/9 (IgA/IgG/IgM), titer, median (range) 1:32 (1:10–1:1000), 2 patients were positive to both NMDAR IgM and IgA antibodies. cIg isotype 2/6/6 (IgA/IgG/IgM) titer, median (range) 1:10 (1:10–1:100). d Ig isotype 1/8/0 (IgA/IgG/IgM), titer, median (range) 1:10 (1:10–1:320). See Additional file 1 for full list of antibody isotype and endpoint titer. CASPR2 contactin-associated protein 2, GAD65 glutamic acid decarboxylase 65, Ig immunoglobulin, NMDAR N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor

References

    1. Herken J, Pruss H. Red flags: clinical signs for identifying autoimmune encephalitis in psychiatric patients. Front Psychiatry/Front Res Found. 2017;8:25. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schou M, Saether SG, Borowski K, Teegen B, Kondziella D, Stoecker W, et al. Prevalence of serum anti-neuronal autoantibodies in patients admitted to acute psychiatric care. Psychol Med. 2016;46:3303–3313. doi: 10.1017/S0033291716002038. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Busse S, Busse M, Brix B, Probst C, Genz A, Bogerts B, et al. Seroprevalence of N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDA-R) autoantibodies in aging subjects without neuropsychiatric disorders and in dementia patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2014;264(6):545–550. doi: 10.1007/s00406-014-0493-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Busse S, Brix B, Kunschmann R, Bogerts B, Stoecker W, Busse M. N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDA-R) antibodies in mild cognitive impairment and dementias. Neurosci Res. 2014;85:58–64. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2014.06.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Castillo-Gomez E, Oliveira B, Tapken D, Bertrand S, Klein-Schmidt C, Pan H, et al. All naturally occurring autoantibodies against the NMDA receptor subunit NR1 have pathogenic potential irrespective of epitope and immunoglobulin class. Mol Psychiatry. 2017;22:1776–1784. doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.125. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms