Identification and evaluation of high-titer anti-Sox Group B antibody in limbic encephalitis

抄録

We evaluated a high titer autoantibody detected in a limbic encephalitis patient with possible lung carcinoma. The patient's autoantibody reacted with BrdU-incorporated dividing cells in the subventricular zone of lateral ventricle and dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, the neurogenic regions of the adult brain, and most of the immunoreactive cells are thought be proneural cells. Characterization of the autoantigen by Western blotting and immunoabsorption has shown that the antibody in the patient's serum binds to Sox Group B proteins but not to authentic paraneoplastic antigens. Our results indicate that the neural stem/progenitor cell population would be a target of the autoantibody in the adult brain.