United States: A new study shows how antibodies can literally affect brain receptors in people with anti-NMDAR encephalitis, a disease that is often mistaken for schizophrenia. This condition can cause serious brain problems that look like mental health issues, as described in Susannah Cahalan’s book, “Brain on Fire.” The research highlights the need for better tests and personalized treatment to help diagnose and treat this rare disease correctly.
Susannah Cahalan’s Surprising Calculation
As reported by Scitechdaily, think about walking out of the hospital door and not knowing what happened to you for a whole month. The doctors tell you that you went on a rampage and they claim you had paranoid schizophrenia. You had even begun to feel that you had bipolar disorder, that…
Then, after a specific test, a neurologist delivers a surprising diagnosis: a very serious autoimmune disorder namely anti-NMDAR encephalitis. This was the reality for Susannah Cahalan, a New York Post reporter, who later wrote the best-selling memoir Brain on Fire: As she titled her own story by My Month of Madness about her experience.
Anti-NMDAR encephalitis can lead to hallucinations, memory deficit and psychosis according to Professor Hiro Furukawa of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. They afflicted primarily women in their reproductive years—between 25 and ages 35—when schizophrenia usually manifests itself. But in anti-NMDAR encephalitis it does not work that way as antibodies target the receptors causing encephalitis.
Epidemiological features, clinical presentation, natural history, and outcome of anti-NMDAR Encephalitis
Furukawa who has studied a lot on NMDARs noted that these brain receptors play important roles in thinking and in memory. In cases of anti-NMDAR encephalitis, the antibodies target the receptors noted above and causes the receptors to fail in their functions. This leads to brain inflammation and the documentary is simply captioned: Brain on Fire.
In this apply, while there are treatments that will be recommended their effectiveness will depend on the degree of the symptoms. New research from the Furukawa lab might help to understand that. In a recently published study, Furukawa and colleagues describe how antibodies from three patients target NMDARs.
What they learn is that the three antibodies interact with NMDARs in different manners. The discovery can be viewed as one of the milestones in climbing up the slope with regard to the disease called anti-NMDAR encephalitis, which was first identified in 2008. Besides, it speculates that if personalization of medicine is important for managing this disease is before identifying that it is in fact very important.
Implications for the diagnosis and treatment general innovation
“Different binding patterns are observed for various functional regulations at the level of NMDARs,” Furukawa adds. “This impacts on neuronal function.” Consequently, multiple binding sites may be associated with differences in patient’s symptoms.