Publication Date:
1994-07-29
Description:
Rasmussen's encephalitis is a progressive childhood disease of unknown cause characterized by severe epilepsy, hemiplegia, dementia, and inflammation of the brain. During efforts to raise antibodies to recombinant glutamate receptors (GluRs), behaviors typical of seizures and histopathologic features mimicking Rasmussen's encephalitis were found in two rabbits immunized with GluR3 protein. A correlation was found between the presence of Rasmussen's encephalitis and serum antibodies to GluR3 detected by protein immunoblot analysis and by immunoreactivity to transfected cells expressing GluR3. Repeated plasma exchanges in one seriously ill child transiently reduced serum titers of GluR3 antibodies, decreased seizure frequency, and improved neurologic function. Thus, GluR3 is an autoantigen in Rasmussen's encephalitis, and an autoimmune process may underlie this disease.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Rogers, S W -- Andrews, P I -- Gahring, L C -- Whisenand, T -- Cauley, K -- Crain, B -- Hughes, T E -- Heinemann, S F -- McNamara, J O -- NS17771/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS28709/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS30990R29/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- etc. -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Jul 29;265(5172):648-51.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Salt Lake City Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, UT.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8036512" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Antibody Specificity
;
Autoantibodies/blood/*immunology
;
Brain/pathology
;
Cell Line
;
Child
;
Disease Models, Animal
;
Encephalitis/complications/*immunology/pathology/therapy
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Male
;
Plasma Exchange
;
Rabbits
;
Receptors, Glutamate/*immunology
;
Recombinant Fusion Proteins/immunology
;
Seizures/etiology/immunology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
