THE ROLE OF AUTOIMMUNITY TO GLUTAMATE RECEPTORS IN NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE

Understanding and experimentally approaching the processes that underl ie the origin and progression of many severe neurological disorders pr esents a challenge to both clinical and basic researchers. We have fou nd that the origin of some neurological diseases, including a rare for m of childhood epilepsy and a neurodegenerative disease associated wit h peripheral cancers, may be related to production of physiologically active autoantibodies that are directed towards excitatory ionotropic glutamate receptors of the brain. This suggests that some neurological diseases may result from dysfunction of the immune system.