Absence of Neuronal Autoantibodies in Neuropsychiatric Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
Varley JA., Andersson M., Grant E., Berretta A., Zandi MS., Bondet V., Duffy D., Hunt D., Piehl F., Waters P., Irani SR.
This study aimed to characterise both neuronal autoantibodies and levels of interferon α, two proposed causative agents in neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma from 35 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE; 15 with NPSLE) showed no antibodies against natively expressed N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), or the surface of live hippocampal neurons. By comparison to controls (n = 104), patients with SLE had antibodies that bound to a peptide representing the extracellular domain of NMDARs (p