Nature Communications (Feb 2019)

CD8+ T cells from patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls recognize hypocretin neuron-specific antigens

  • Natasja Wulff Pedersen,
  • Anja Holm,
  • Nikolaj Pagh Kristensen,
  • Anne-Mette Bjerregaard,
  • Amalie Kai Bentzen,
  • Andrea Marion Marquard,
  • Tripti Tamhane,
  • Kristoffer Sølvsten Burgdorf,
  • Henrik Ullum,
  • Poul Jennum,
  • Stine Knudsen,
  • Sine Reker Hadrup,
  • Birgitte Rahbek Kornum

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08774-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

Read online

Autoreactive T cells are suspected to destroy hypocretin-producing neurons in narcolepsy. Here the authors detect CD8 T cells recognizing narcolepsy-related proteins in healthy individuals and in patients with narcolepsy, and show that the frequency of self-reactive CD8 T cells differs between patients and controls sharing the same HLA-II risk allele.