Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:26:00.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Absence of Brain Antibodies in Senile Dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Senga Whittingham
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Unit of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Vanda Lennon
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Unit of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Ian R. Mackay
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Unit of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
G. Vernon Davies
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia
Brian Davies
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia

Extract

In recent years the recognition of autoimmune processes has led to important advances in our understanding of certain diseases of hitherto uncertain causation (Mackay and Burnet, 1963). In psychiatry, schizophrenia has been the main focus of studies of auto-immunity, with Heath and Krupp (1967) reporting positive results of tests for antibodies to brain cell nuclei and Whittingham et al. (1968) reporting negative results. Studies have been described (McAlpine et al., 1965) in which antibodies were detected to whole brain homogen- ates, mostly by complement-fixation, in various disease states that included multiple sclerosis. Wilkinson and Zeromski (1965) found, by immunofluorescence, serum antibodies to cytoplasm of neurones in four of eight patients with carcinomatous neuropathy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burnet, F. M. (1968). ‘A modem basis for pathology.’ Lancet, ii, 1383–7.Google Scholar
Heath, R. G., and Krupp, I. M. (1967). ‘Schizophrenia as an immiunologic disorder.’ Arch. gen. Psychiat., 16, 133.Google Scholar
Mackay, I. R., and Burnet, F. M. (1963). Auto-immune Diseases: Pathogenesis, Chemistry and Therapy., Spring-field, Illinois: Thomas.Google Scholar
McAlpine, D., Lumsden, C. E., and Acheson, E. D. (1965). Multiple Sclerosis., Edinburgh and London: Livingstone.Google Scholar
McPherson, T. A., and Carnegie, P. R. (1968). ‘Radioimmunoassay using gel filtration for detecting antibody to basic proteins of myelin.’ J. Lab, clin, Med., 72, 824–31.Google Scholar
Whittingham, S., Mackay, I. R., Jones, I. H., and Davies, B. (1968). ‘Absence of brain antibodies in patients with schizophrenia.’ Brit. med. J. i, 347–8.Google Scholar
Whittingham, S., Mackay, I. R., Jones, I. H., and Davies, B. (1969), ‘Laboratory methods for diagnosis of autoimmune disease.’ Med. J. Aust., i, 1200–5.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, P. C., and Zeromski, J. (1965). ‘Immuno-fluorescent detection of antibodies against neiuones in sensory carcinomatous neuropathy.’ Brain, 28, 529–38.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.