NMDA receptor antibodies predict adverse neurological outcome after cardiac surgery in high-risk patients.

Background And Purpose: The goal of this study was to compare the predictive ability of S100B, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antibodies (NR2Ab) and C-reactive protein (CRP) for neurological deficits after cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).

Methods: We investigated 557 high-risk adult patients who underwent coronary artery or valve replacement surgery using CPB as a substudy of a prospective, blinded, multicenter clinical trial. Serum concentrations of S100B (n=513 patients), NR2Ab (n=398) and CRP (n=510) were measured preoperatively, 24 and 48 hours after CPB.

Blood test detecting autoantibodies to N-methyl-D-aspartate neuroreceptors for evaluation of patients with transient ischemic attack and stroke.

Background: Stroke is a multisystemic disorder that includes mechanisms of thrombosis and neurotoxic coupling. Key metabolites of the molecular cascade following biochemical events appear simultaneously in brain tissue, the blood-brain barrier, and brain vessels, activating the immune system and generating autoantibodies (aAbs) to brain-specific antigens. We developed an ELISA blood test to measure aAbs to a subtype of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, which are the key markers of neurotoxicity underlying cerebral ischemia.

Recombinant mu-delta receptor as a marker of opiate abuse.

The brain is particularly vulnerable to drugs of abuse changing the neuroreceptor functions. Opiates interact and overstimulate heterogeneous opioid receptors leading to their desensitization, internalization, and activation of recombinant opioid receptor. The molecular properties of rat and human brain recombinant mu-delta receptor were compared with those of purified mu- and delta-receptors.