Immune Factors in Neurological Diseases v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Immune Factors in Neurological Diseases
IRAS ID
195152
Contact name
Adam Handel
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Neurological disorders are often difficult to treat. We, and other clinical researchers, have shown an autoimmune, usually antibody mediated, cause for some such conditions in several studies. Affected patients are of both sexes, all ages and all races. Examples include, myasthenia gravis and, most recently, novel forms of encephalitis and epilepsy. The presence of an immune component to a neurological disease offers clinicians the opportunity to treat patients with drugs which suppress the immune system, such as steroids.
This is an exploratory study to examine longitudinal observational clinical data from patients with a possible autoimmune component to their neurological condition. The study aims to correlate these clinical findings with laboratory immunological findings from bodily fluids (blood, spinal fluid, urine and saliva) using both established and novel assays and determine the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients who respond to immune-therapies.
This clinical and immunological characterisation will allow description of associated phenotypes, biomarkers and responses to treatments. This will be true for both well-established and novel antibodies or immunological parameters. Further cellular and other immunogenetic laboratory work will seek to understand the biology of neurological conditions, predisposing factors and to identify possible targets for future drug development.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0013
Date of REC Opinion
13 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion