<i>Campylobacter jejuni </i>infections and anti-GM1 antibodies in Guillain-Barré syndrome

The group of patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is very heterogenous with regard to antecedent infections, immunological parameters, clinical manifestations, and response to treatment. In this study, the presumed pathogenic factors anti-GM1 antibodies and Campylobacter jejuni infections were related to the clinical characteristics. Serum from 154 patients with GBS, 63 patients with other neurological diseases (OND), and 50 normal controls (NC) were tested for the presence of antibodies against GM1 and C. jejuni. Anti-GM1 antibodies were detected in 31 (20%) GBS patients, 5 (8%) OND patients, and in none of the NC. Evidence for a recent C. jejuni infection was found in 49 (32%) GBS patients and less often in OND patients (11%) or NC (8%). In GBS patients, the presence of anti-GM1 antibodies was significantly associated with C. jejuni infections. The subgroup of GBS patients with anti-GM1 antibodies suffered more often from a rapidly progressive and more severe neuropathy with predominandy distal distribution of weakness, without deficits of cranial nerves or sensory disturbances. The subgroup with C. jejuni infection also more often had a severe pure motor variant of GBS. Recovery of the patients with anti-GMl antibodies and C. jejuni infections was not as good after plasma exchange compared with intravenous immunoglobulins.</p

Age at onset as stratifier in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease – effect of ageing and polygenic risk score on clinical phenotypes

Several phenotypic differences observed in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients have been linked to age at onset (AAO). We endeavoured to find out whether these differences are due to the ageing process itself by using a combined dataset of idiopathic PD (n = 430) and healthy controls (HC; n = 556) excluding carriers of known PD-linked genetic mutations in both groups. We found several significant effects of AAO on motor and non-motor symptoms in PD, but when comparing the effects of age on these symptoms with HC (using age at assessment, AAA), only positive associations of AAA with burden of motor symptoms and cognitive impairment were significantly different between PD vs HC. Furthermore, we explored a potential effect of polygenic risk score (PRS) on clinical phenotype and identified a significant inverse correlation of AAO and PRS in PD. No significant association between PRS and severity of clinical symptoms was found. We conclude that the observed non-motor phenotypic differences in PD based on AAO are largely driven by the ageing process itself and not by a specific profile of neurodegeneration linked to AAO in the idiopathic PD patients

The polypeptide chain composition of Ø crystallin

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_193329859.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Promotor : H. Bloemendal113 p

Epstein-Barr virus specific marker molecules for early diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis

The molecular specificity of the antibody response against Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is studied in patients with acute primary EBV-infection, i.e. infectious mononucleosis syndrome. Using the immunoblot technique both IgM and IgG antibody responses are studied in sera obtained serially until week 20 after onset of symptoms. Healthy seropositive blood donors are used as control. Antigens are prepared from virus producer cell lines B95-8, P3HR1 and HH514-c16 (a superinducible derivative of P3HR1), induced for the expression of early antigens (EA) or viral capsid antigens (VCA) and from the EBV-negative cell lines BJAB and RAMOS. The 'WC'-serum, described by Edson et al. (J. Immunol. 130, 1983) is used to characterize EA- and VCA-specific polypeptides and to define their subcellular location. The immunoblot studies reveal an enormous diversity in EBV-specific polypeptides recognised by different individual patients, both for IgM and IgG. In addition, these patterns were markedly different from those found with control blood donor sera. The latter predominantly recognised bands at 72 kDa (EBNA) and 41 and 18 kDa respectively (both VCA components). Despite the great individual variation observed, EA-specific polypeptides at 138 kDa and at 45-52 kDa were recognised by both IgM and IgG antibodies in first serum samples of all patients tested

A sero-epidemiological study of the relationship between sexually transmitted agents and cervical cancer in Honduras

Contains fulltext : 25826___.PDF (publisher's version ) (Open Access