New Biomarkers in Auto-immune Encephalitis and Neurological Paraneoplastic Syndromes

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Test of biological samples: Different tests can be use on biological sample : western bloc, dot blot, immune-fluorescence, immunoprecipitation, CBA, functional test, epitope research, IgG title

Study summary

Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) and paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNS) are rare neuroimmune syndromes with a wide range of clinical presentation but without pathognomonic clinical sign facilitating the diagnosis. A lot of differential diagnoses are possible such as neurodegenerative diseases or viral infections. Although rare the diagnosis of AE or PNS is essential because despite severe neurological symptoms, patients can be cured by appropriate immunotherapy. Autoantibodies highly specific of AE and PNS has been described in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid of the patients and can be used as biomarkers of the disease. Their presence can predict an autoimmune origin and in many cases a good prognosis after immunotherapy. However, if some autoantibodies are now well-characterized and industrial kits have been developed to detect them, in numerous cases of highly suspect AE or PNS no specific autoantibodies are identified leading frequently to an inappropriate treatment. Furthermore, as the mechanisms of AE and PNS is still unknown, treatments are not optimal and in some cases inefficient. There is no prognosis biomarker able to predict the patient's sensitivity to immunotherapy and there are only few clues to know how the immune system can provoke the neuropsychiatric symptoms observed in the patients. The investigators will use this project to better characterize AE and PNS patients to identify new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and develop new diagnostic tools.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Description of new biomarkers — Baseline
  Results of diagnostics tests for each patient, description of marking

Trial sites (1)

More Hospices Civils de Lyon trials in France

Other trials for the same condition