The pathogenicity of culprit antibody in autoimmune encephalitis

Abstract

Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) comprises an important group of autoimmune diseases targeting central nervous system. Although the growing number of new antibodies has amplified our understanding of the disease spectrum of AE, it has also produced challenges to accurately recognize the clinical phenotypes. Culprit antibody refers to the pathogenic antibody causing one or more clinical phenotypes during the disease. This concept establishes a connection between autoantibodies and clinical phenotypes, and also reflects the idea of modern precision medicine. The most important for better understanding the antibody⁃phenotype causality is to ascertain the pathogenicity of culprit antibody. Accordingly, we will discuss the recent progress in pathogenesis of the culprit antibody in AE.

Keywords

• encephalitis
• autoimmune diseases
• antibodies
• virulence
• review