Routine detection of serum anti-desmocollin autoantibodies is only useful in patients with atypical pemphigus

Autoantibodies against the 3 desmocollin (Dsc; Dsc1-Dsc3) isoforms have been described in different pemphigus variants. Here, we developed state-of-the-art detection systems for serum anti-Dsc1, Dsc2 and Dsc1 IgG and IgA. These assays were applied in 5 different cohorts including pemphigus vulgaris (PV) patients with compatible direct immunofluorescence (IF) microscopy but no reactivity against desmogleins 1 and 3 (n = 24) and sera from patients with autoimmune blistering diseases with positive direct IF microscopy taken at the time of diagnosis (n = 749). We found that detection of anti-Dsc serum reactivity is not helpful in the routine diagnosis of PV, pemphigus foliaceus and paraneoplastic pemphigus but may be valuable in pemphigus vegetans

Multicenter prospective study on multivariant diagnostics of autoimmune bullous dermatoses using the BIOCHIPTM technology.

BACKGROUND The current standard in the serological diagnosis of autoimmune bullous diseases (AIBD) is a multistep procedure sequentially applying different assays. In contrast, the BIOCHIPTM mosaic technology combines multiple substrates for parallel analysis by indirect immunofluorescence (IF). METHODS Sera from 749 consecutive, prospectively recruited, direct IF positive AIBD patients from 13 international study centers were analyzed independently and blinded using (i) a BIOCHIPTM mosaic including primate esophagus, salt-split skin, recombinant BP180 NC16A and gliadin GAF3x as well as HEK293 cells expressing recombinant desmoglein1, desmoglein3, type VII collagen, and BP230 C-terminus and (ii) the conventional multistep approach of the Department of Dermatology, University of Lübeck. RESULTS In 731 of 749 sera (97.6%) specific autoantibodies could be detected using the BIOCHIPTM mosaic, similar to the conventional procedure (725 cases, 96.8%). Cohens κ for both serological approaches ranged from 0.84 to 1.00. In 6.5% of sera, differences between the two approaches occurred and were mainly attributed to autoantigen fragments not present on the BIOCHIPTM mosaic. LIMITATIONS Laminin 332 and laminin γ1 are not represented on the BIOCHIPTM mosaic. CONCLUSIONS The BIOCHIPTM mosaic is a standardized, time- and serum-saving approach that further facilitates the serological diagnosis of AIBD

NEST 3.4

NEST is a simulator for spiking neural network models that focuses on the dynamics, size and structure of neural systems rather than on the exact morphology of individual neurons. For further information, visit https://www.nest-simulator.org . The release notes for this release are available at https://github.com/nest/nest-simulator/releases/tag/v3.4. Zenodo record: 10.5281/zenodo.686780