title: Immunity and acquired alterations in cognition and emotion: lessons from SLE.
abstract: Classic immunologic teaching describes the brain as an immunologically privileged site. Studies of neuroimmunology have focused for many years almost exclusively on multiple sclerosis, a disease in which inflammatory cells actually infiltrate brain tissue, and the rodent model of this disease, experimental allergic encephalitis. Over the past decade, however, increasingly, brain-reactive antibodies have been demonstrated in the serum of patients with numerous neurological diseases. The contribution these antibodies make to neuronal dysfunction has, in general, not been determined. Here, we describe recent studies showing that serum antibodies to the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor occur frequently in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and can cause alterations in cognition and behavior following a breach in the blood-brain barrier.
authors: Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
authors: Betty
authors: B
authors: Diamond
authors: Czeslawa
authors: C
authors: Kowal
authors: Patricio T
authors: PT
authors: Huerta
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Aranow
authors: Meggan
authors: M
authors: Mackay
authors: Lorraine A
authors: LA
authors: DeGiorgio
authors: Ji
authors: J
authors: Lee
authors: Antigone
authors: A
authors: Triantafyllopoulou
authors: Joel
authors: J
authors: Cohen-Solal
authors: Bruce T
authors: BT
authors: Volpe