Autoimmune Encephalitis

Abstract

Autoimmune encephalitides (AE) constitute a broad group of inflammatory brain disorders characterized by prominent neuropsychiatric symptoms, frequently in association with autoantibodies against neural (neuronal or glial) antigens. The most frequent AE are anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (associated with MOG antibodies in 60% of patients), and limbic encephalitis (with several immunologic subtypes, anti-LGI1 encephalitis being the most frequent). The first 2 predominantly affect children and young adults, whereas limbic encephalitis usually affects patients older than 50 years. Despite the severity of symptoms, prompt diagnosis and treatment lead to substantial recovery in most patients.

Keywords: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis; Anti-NMDAR encephalitis; Autoimmune encephalitis; Immunotherapy; Limbic encephalitis; Neural cell-surface antibodies; Onconeuronal antibodies; Paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes.