Glial fbrillary acidic protein (GFAP)‑antibody in children with focal seizures of undetermined cause

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Date
24.04.2020Author
Savaş, MerveTzartos, John
Küçükali, Cem İsmail
Dursun, Erdinç
Karagiorgou, Katerina
Gezen Ak, Duygu
Türkdoğan, Dilşad
Papaconstantinou, Aliki
Başoğlu, Sezin
Hacıhafızoğlu, Nilüfer
Kutlubay, Büşra
Tzartos, Socrates
Tüzün, Erdem
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Show full item recordAbstract
Anti-neuronal antibodies that are related with autoimmune encephalitis syndromes may also be found in children with new onset seizures or chronic epilepsy. To unravel the signifcance of autoimmune astrocytopathy in epilepsy, we investigated serum antibody to glial fbrillary acidic protein (GFAP), another autoantigen described in autoimmune encephalitis with seizures, in 38 children with focal seizures of undetermined cause. GFAP antibody was screened with cell based assay and indirect immunohistochemistry and was found in two boys with normal brain MRI and unrevealing medical history prior to seizures. The 2-year-old boy had chronic treatment-resistant frontal lobe epilepsy. The 2.5-year-old boy had a single episode of focal seizures and remained seizure free thereafter in a follow-up period of 4 years. Nevertheless, he showed severe cognitive and language impairment. These results suggest that autoimmune astrocytopathy may be present in some epilepsy patients. Whether this immune response is a bystander efect generated by seizure-induced astrocytosis or directly involved in epileptogenesis needs to be further studied.
Source
Acta Neurologica BelgicaCollections
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