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Review
. 2022 May 23:13:867229.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.867229. eCollection 2022.

Immunopsychiatry - Innovative Technology to Characterize Disease Activity in Autoantibody-Associated Psychiatric Diseases

Niels Hansen  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Immunopsychiatry - Innovative Technology to Characterize Disease Activity in Autoantibody-Associated Psychiatric Diseases

Niels Hansen. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Background: Anti-neural autoantibody-associated psychiatric disease is a novel field in immunopsychiatry that has been attracting attention thanks to its potentially positive therapeutic outcome and distinct prognosis compared with non-organic psychiatric disease. This review aims to describe recent novel technological developments for improving diagnostics in the field of autoantibody-related psychiatric disease.

Methods: We screened for relevant articles in PubMed for this narrative article. We focused on research methods such as neuroimaging, immune cells and inflammation markers, and molecular biomarkers in human biofluids like serum and cerebrospinal fluid and plasma proteomics.

Results: We introduce several novel methods for investigating autoinflammation with the aim of optimizing therapies for autoantibody-associated psychiatric disease. We describe measuring the translocator protein 18kDa in activated microglia via positron emission tomography imaging, brain volumetric assessment, flow cell cytometry of cerebrospinal fluid and blood, and blood biological probes as well as psychopathological cues to help us gain insights into diagnosing inflammation and brain damage better in psychiatric patients presenting a suspected autoimmune etiology.

Conclusion: Our short methodological review provides an overview of recent developments in the field of autoantibody-related immunopsychiatry. More research is needed to prove their usefulness in diagnosing and treating autoantibody-associated psychiatric disease and its subtypes.

Keywords: anti-neural autoantibody; autoimmunity; immunopsychiatry; innovative technology; methods.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Innovative technology for optimizing the characterization of autoantibody-associated psychiatric disease. TSPO = activated microglia translocator protein 18kDa through positron emission tomography imaging.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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