Frontiers in Immunology (Jan 2023)

Overlapping anti-NMDAR encephalitis and multiple sclerosis: A case report and literature review

  • Pan Liu,
  • Hui Yan,
  • Haizhe Li,
  • Chunhua Zhang,
  • Yanfang Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1088801
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is an autoimmune-mediated disease characterized by complicated neuropsychiatric symptoms and the detection of cerebrospinal fluid antibodies against the GluN1 subunit of the NMDAR. With the proposed clinical method, more anti-NMDAR encephalitis patients have been discovered since its first report. However, anti-NMDAR encephalitis overlapping with multiple sclerosis (MS) is rare. Herein we report a male patient with anti-NMDAR encephalitis who developed MS in mainland China. Furthermore, we summarized the characteristics of patients who were diagnosed with overlapping MS and anti-NMDAR encephalitis in previous studies. Additionally, we pioneered the use of mycophenolate mofetil in immunosuppressive therapy, providing a novel therapeutic alternative for overlapping anti-NMDAR encephalitis and MS.

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