Can anti-AQP4 antibody damage the blood-brain barrier?

Background: Aquaporin 4 (AQP4) is a water-channel protein predominantly expressed in astrocyte end feet that make up the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Recently, anti-AQP4 antibody has been identified as a specific biomarker of neuromyelitis optica (NMO). However, whether anti-AQP4 antibodies damage the BBB is unclear.

[Anti-VGKC antibody-associated limbic encephalitis/Morvan syndrome].

Anti-voltage-gated potassium channel antibodies (anti-VGKC-Ab) cause hyperexcitability of the peripheral nerve and central nervous system. Peripheral nerve hyperexcitability is the chief manifestation of Issacs syndrome and cramp-fasciculation syndrome. Morvan syndrome is characterized by neuromyotonia with autonomic and CNS involvement.

Molecular network analysis of T-cell transcriptome suggests aberrant regulation of gene expression by NF-kappaB as a biomarker for relapse of multiple sclerosis.

Molecular mechanisms responsible for acute relapse of multiple sclerosis (MS) remain currently unknown. The aim of this study is to identify the relapse-specific biomarker genes in T lymphocytes of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). Total RNA of CD3+ T cells isolated from six RRMS patients taken at the peak of acute relapse and at the point of complete remission was processed for DNA microarray analysis.

[Tailored therapy for multiple sclerosis].

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered as an autoimmune disease targeted to myelin and oligodendrocytes, which leads to inflammatory demyelination in the central nervous system (CNS). MS is possibly a polygenetic and multifactorial disorder in which the interaction between various genetic and environmental factors could cause clinically and pathologically heterogeneous phenotypes. Most of the previous efforts to predict clinical courses, therapeutic responses, and prognosis of MS have been unsuccessful.

Close association of water channel AQP1 with amyloid-beta deposition in Alzheimer disease brains.

Aquaporin-1 (AQP1), a membrane water channel protein, is expressed exclusively in the choroid plexus epithelium in the central nervous system under physiological conditions. However, AQP1 expression is enhanced in reactive astrocytes, accumulating in brain lesions of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and multiple sclerosis, suggesting a role of AQP1-expressing astrocytes in brain water homeostasis under pathological conditions. To clarify a pathological implication of AQP1 in Alzheimer disease (AD), we investigated the possible relationship between amyloid-beta (Abeta) deposition and astrocytic AQP1 expression in the motor cortex and hippocampus of 11 AD patients and 16 age-matched other neurological disease cases.

Neuromyelitis optica/Devic's disease: gene expression profiling of brain lesions.

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), also known as Devic's disease, is an inflammatory demyelinating disease that affects selectively the optic nerves and the spinal cord, possibly mediated by an immune mechanism distinct from that of multiple sclerosis (MS). Recent studies indicate that NMO also involves the brain. Here, we studied gene expression profile of brain lesions of a patient with NMO by using DNA microarray, along with gene expression profile of the brains of Parkinson disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients.