AUTOANTIBODIES IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES - ANTIGEN-SPECIFIC FREQUENCIES AND INTRATHECAL ANALYSIS

The frequency of autoantibodies (AAbs) was surveyed in several neurode generative diseases, other neurological diseases, and controls using a ntigen-specific EIAs for neurofilament heavy subunit, tubulin, glial f ibrillary acidic protein, S100 protein, tau; P-amyloid peptide, myelin basic protein, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan. High frequencies of sera and cerebrospinal fluid tubulin AAbs were found in Alzheimer dise ase (62% and 69%, respectively), Parkinson disease (27% and 70%), amyo trophic lateral sclerosis (54% and 67%), and in sera from multiple scl erosis (50% and 67%), optic neuritis (85%), Guillain-Barre syndrome (8 8%), and vascular dementia (52%). High frequencies of neurofilament he avy subunit AAbs were detected in Guillain-Barre syndrome, chronic per ipheral neuropathy (88%) and optic neuritis (62%): whereas, some Alzhe imer's disease (33%) and vascular dementia (44%) patients had glial fi brillary acidic protein AAbs. Lower frequencies of other AAbs were fou nd in patient groups. AAb results were also compared to Functional ass essment of blood-brain barrier integrity in Parkinson's disease and Al zheimer's disease. The relevance of these AAbs to pathogenesis and/or course of neurologic diseases merits further study with particular ref erence to subgrouping and prognosis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.