title: Detection of anti-brain serum antibodies using a semi-quantitative immunohistological method.
abstract: The number of autoimmune disorders that may involve the nervous system is increasing. The diagnosis of neurological involvement in the context of systemic diseases may be helped by the detection of autoantibodies reacting against neural autoantigens. If the autoantigen is not known but the target tissue is suspected, immunohistochemistry is one of the main techniques used to certify the presence of autoantibodies. Autoreactive antibodies are also present in the healthy population but in low quantity compared to patients with such diseases. Quantification of such autoantibodies could help to discriminate between disease and healthy states. We have developed a densitometric immunohistological method for the evaluation of human serum anti-neural reactivity. Using a densitometric analysis of rat brain sections incubated with the serum from 107 healthy subjects, we have defined the baseline of natural anti-neural autoreactivity, and the cut-off for subsequent quantification of anti-neural reactivity in patients with neurological involvement in the context of autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, and stiff person syndrome. The test sensitivity was 81% with a positive predictive value of 52%, a specificity of 89% with a negative predictive value as high as 97%. In conclusion, this standardised semi-quantitative procedure makes immunohistochemistry a reliable diagnostic test for autoimmune neuropathologies and represents an excellent exclusion test for anti-neural autoimmunity.
authors.affiliation: BRAIN Centre for Neuroscience, Department of Biology, University of Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri, 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boscolo
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Passoni
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Baldas
authors.forename: Iacopo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cancelli
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hadjivassiliou
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tongiorgi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000276:immunology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003720:Densitometry; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D020362:Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016750:Stiff-Person Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies