Brain diseases linked to antibodies can be treated, says expert

 

 

Chennai:

Antibodies in a human immune system helps in neutralising disease causing bacteria, fungi and viruses but scientists have found out that these antibodies are also linked to many brain diseases and it could be cured.

Delivering 34^th T S Srinivasan Oration here on Saturday, Prof Angela Vincent of Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK, said that the perception that neurological disorders is difficult to treat could change with the recent discovery linking antibodies to brain disease. “Brain disease caused by auto-antibodies can be reversible,” she says.

But how does these friendly anti-bodies turn into foes. She says the sometimes these anti-bodies react with proteins on the surface of the human cells. It is when the immune system attacks these healthy body cells tat an autoimmune disease results. This can affect one or many different types of body tissue and at any age, she says.

“There is now a family of auto-immune brain diseases that are reversible with treatments. However, the cause for autoimmune diseases are not completely known yet. Sometimes it can be a tumour in the body or a brain damage resulting from an infection that stimulates the immune system to make the antibodies but in most cases we don’t know,” Prof Angela Vincent said.

“It is also possible that a small proportion of patients with common diseases such as epilepsy or patients with acute dementia or psychosis have antibodies as the cause and this is becoming an area of major research interest by several groups in the world. If antibodies can be identified in these patients, they might benefit with immune treatments as well as the usual drugs,” observed Prof Angela Vincent.

Interestingly, in India, probably 10 patients per million per year, including children and older people could be diagnosed with disease caused by antibodies. “Though this might not seem like an enormous number, it would represent around 10,000 patients for such a big country,” she said.

Urging the medical fraternity not to be afraid to use immune treatments, she said they should consult their colleagues who are myasthenia gravis or rheumatoid arthritis experts if they need advice