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Found 18061 matches for
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MORVAN'S SYNDROME: CLINICAL AND SEROLOGICAL FINDINGS IN 27 CASES
24 October 2018
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Autoantibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase in patients with epilepsy are associated with low cortical GABA levels.
24 October 2018
Antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the major pathway for the synthesis of c-aminobutyric acid(GABA) in humans, are found at elevated levels in a subgroup of patients with chronic epilepsy. To test whether the antibodies were associated with changes in cortical GABA levels we used magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Four patients with epilepsy and high serum GAD antibody levels (107-6,200 units/ml) and 10 healthy controls were recruited. A 3T GABA-optimized spectrum was obtained from a reproducible voxel in the cortex. Compared to the control group, the patient group had significantly lower GABA concentrations within the cortex. Demonstration of an association between high serum GAD antibodies and low cortical GABA levels in patients with epilepsy suggests that GAD antibodies are, at least, a marker of a specific disease process and support a role for immune-mediated GABAergic dysfunction.
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Antibodies to Kv1 potassium channel-complex proteins leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1 protein and contactin-associated protein-2 in limbic encephalitis, Morvan's syndrome and acquired neuromyotonia.
24 October 2018
Antibodies that immunoprecipitate (125)I-alpha-dendrotoxin-labelled voltage-gated potassium channels extracted from mammalian brain tissue have been identified in patients with neuromyotonia, Morvan's syndrome, limbic encephalitis and a few cases of adult-onset epilepsy. These conditions often improve following immunomodulatory therapies. However, the proportions of the different syndromes, the numbers with associated tumours and the relationships with potassium channel subunit antibody specificities have been unclear. We documented the clinical phenotype and tumour associations in 96 potassium channel antibody positive patients (titres >400 pM). Five had thymomas and one had an endometrial adenocarcinoma. To define the antibody specificities, we looked for binding of serum antibodies and their effects on potassium channel currents using human embryonic kidney cells expressing the potassium channel subunits. Surprisingly, only three of the patients had antibodies directed against the potassium channel subunits. By contrast, we found antibodies to three proteins that are complexed with (125)I-alpha-dendrotoxin-labelled potassium channels in brain extracts: (i) contactin-associated protein-2 that is localized at the juxtaparanodes in myelinated axons; (ii) leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1 protein that is most strongly expressed in the hippocampus; and (iii) Tag-1/contactin-2 that associates with contactin-associated protein-2. Antibodies to Kv1 subunits were found in three sera, to contactin-associated protein-2 in 19 sera, to leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1 protein in 55 sera and to contactin-2 in five sera, four of which were also positive for the other antibodies. The remaining 18 sera were negative for potassium channel subunits and associated proteins by the methods employed. Of the 19 patients with contactin-associated protein-antibody-2, 10 had neuromyotonia or Morvan's syndrome, compared with only 3 of the 55 leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1 protein-antibody positive patients (P < 0.0001), who predominantly had limbic encephalitis. The responses to immunomodulatory therapies, defined by changes in modified Rankin scores, were good except in the patients with tumours, who all had contactin-associated-2 protein antibodies. This study confirms that the majority of patients with high potassium channel antibodies have limbic encephalitis without tumours. The identification of leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1 protein and contactin-associated protein-2 as the major targets of potassium channel antibodies, and their associations with different clinical features, begins to explain the diversity of these syndromes; furthermore, detection of contactin-associated protein-2 antibodies should help identify the risk of an underlying tumour and a poor prognosis in future patients.
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Viral vectors for immunisation against potassium channel Kv1.2
24 October 2018
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Abstract Submission
23 May 2017
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Published Paper: Frontiers in Physiology
27 April 2017
"An ultra-high field Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy study of post exercise lactate, glutamate and glutamine change in the human brain" - Dennis et al. 2015
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SEND
20 September 2016
SEND is an electronic vital signs system that has been jointly developed by Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The system is now live in all adult inpatient areas across the Trust.
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Osler Travel Award for student to visit PiNG group
21 June 2016
Julia Nantes awarded grant to visit PiNG Group in the Autumn
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Primary Schools
6 October 2016
Our scientists love showing primary school children how MRI works and giving them a chance to make up their own experiments to do on our scanners.
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Secondary Schools
6 October 2016
We regularly go out into secondary schools to speak about neuroscience and invite secondary school students into the lab to find out what neuroscience research is really like.
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The Creative Brain
6 October 2016
Bringing together people from a wide range of disciplines, providing a forum to provoke thought and dialogue about how our understanding of neuroscience can impact on all aspects of our lives, and how insights from other fields can enrich our study of neuroscience.
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Museums and Festivals
6 October 2016
Our scientists regularly attend science fairs and put on exhibitions at local museums.
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Media
6 October 2016
Our scientists regularly appear on national media to explain the impact that our work has.
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Clinic Locations and Directions
26 August 2016
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Public missing out on a night’s worth of sleep every week
31 March 2016
Experts call for introduction of sleep guidelines in new report
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Open Day on medical research by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
4 April 2016
This public open day will showcase groundbreaking medical research that is taking place in Oxford across a range of conditions
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Researchers target intensive care noise problem
8 April 2016
TV presents one picture of an intensive care unit (ICU) – dimmed lights, hushed voices and softly bleeping machines. The reality is that it's more like a busy restaurant and frequently it's noisy enough to compete with a pneumatic drill. That's why Oxford University researchers have been trying to make intensive care noise less intensive.
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Oxford scientists involved in world’s biggest body scanning project
14 April 2016
The world’s largest health imaging study, funded by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and the British Heart Foundation is launched today. It will create the biggest collection of scans of internal organs, and transform the way scientists study a wide range of diseases.
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New project explores women’s experiences of science
20 April 2016
What is the key to success for women who work in science? A new website, launched this week, delves into the various experiences of successful women in science at the University of Oxford, through a collection of video narratives.
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Gene therapy shows long-term benefit for treating blindness
29 April 2016
Pioneering gene therapy has restored some vision to John Radcliffe Hospital patients with a rare form of genetic blindness for as long as four years, raising hopes it could be used to cure common causes of vision loss, new University of Oxford research published today shows.
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From Neuroscience to Politics and Back Again
9 April 2018
Gwenaëlle Douaud experiences the Royal Society’s Pairing Scheme
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NDCN at the Cheltenham Science Festival
15 June 2017
The Cheltenham Science Festival was first held in 2002, and has quickly grown to become one of the most significant of its kind in the UK. The 2017 festival ran from 6-11 June and featured three of our scientists.
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First genetic analysis of brain function and structure using UK Biobank imaging data yields exciting results
10 October 2018
Integrative Neuroimaging Research
Oxford scientists report exciting new insights into the structure and function of the brain using genetic information and detailed brain images from UK Biobank