OBJECTIVE: To evaluate serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) NAA concentrations in patients with different demyelinating disease phenotypes and to correlate them with clinical measures. BACKGROUND: NAA is considered a marker of the functional integrity of neuronal mitochondrial metabolism that is mainly catabolised in oligodendrocytes. Normal appearing white matter (NAWM) damage, reported in MS but not in NMO by MRI studies, is associated with decreased brain NAA levels.
Background: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is characterized by severe optic neuritis and longitudinally extended transverse myelitis. A serum autoantibody against aquaporin-4 (AQP4), a water channel densely expressed on astrocytes, has been detected exclusively in NMO and the high-risk syndrome. Pathologically, an extensive loss of AQP4 with perivascular depositions of activated complements (C9neo) as well as immunoglobulins is seen in NMO lesions, and infiltration of neutrophils is not uncommon in those lesions.
Background: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a neurological disease characterized by optic neuritis and transverse myelitis with long spinal cord lesion. Recently, NMO-IgG, which recognizes the aquaporin-4 (AQP-4), was identified in sera from patients with NMO. AQP-4 is a water channel expressed in astrocytes and ependymal cells throughout the brain and spinal cord
Background: Chitinases are a family of hydrolases characterized by the ability to cleave the environmental polysaccharide chitin. Although mammals do not synthesize chitin, they do synthesize chitinases, and chitinase-like proteins (CLPs)
OBJECTIVE: The serum of most neuromyelitis optica (NMO) patients contains autoantibodies (NMO-IgGs) directed against the aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channel located on astrocyte foot processes in the perivessel and subpial areas of the brain. Our objectives were to determine the source of central nervous system (CNS) NMO-IgGs and their role in disease pathogenesis. METHODS: Fluorescence-activated cell sorting and single-cell reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction were used to identify overrepresented plasma cell immunoglobulin (Ig) sequences in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of an NMO patient after a first clinical attack
BACKGROUND: In 70-80% of cases, neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is associated with highly specific serum auto-antibodies to aquaporin-4 (termed AQP4-Ab or NMO-IgG).
INTRODUCTION: Loss of aquaporin 4 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) with necrosis and demyelination is a prominent pathologic feature of neuromyelitis optica (NMO). However, the clinicopathologic significance of astrocytic damage and its relation with demyelination are unknown
Devic neuromyelitis optica (DNMO) is a severe demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS).