BACKGROUND Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a severe demyelinating disease, represents itself with optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis. Serum NMO-IgG autoantibodies (Abs), a specific finding in NMO patients, target the water channel protein aquaporin-4 (AQP4), which is expressed as a long (M-1) or a short (M-23) isoform. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The aim of this st...

BACKGROUND Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that predominantly affects the optic nerves and spinal cord. Although NMO has long been considered a subtype of multiple sclerosis (MS), the effects of interferon-β treatment are different between NMO and MS. Recent findings of NMO-IgG suggest that NMO could be a distinct disease rather than a subtype...

background: multiple sclerosis (ms) and neuromyelitis optica (nmo) are inflammatory and demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (cns). nk cells are supposed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of ms, but their role in the nmo remains unknown. the aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of different subpopulations of nk cells in the patients with ms and nmo and ...

BACKGROUND A number of reports have described the presence of tuberculosis (TB) in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) patients. However, a definite association between the two conditions has not been conclusively demonstrated. METHODS To investigate the association between NMO and TB in a Chinese population, we performed a retrospective review of hospital records of NMO patients, control patients and...

We calculate the dynamics of a nanomechanical oscillator NMO coupled capacitively to a Cooper-pair box CPB by solving a stochastic Schrödinger equation with two Lindblad operators Commun. Math. Phys. 48, 119 1976 . . Both the NMO and the CPB are assumed dissipative, and the coupling is treated within the rotating wave approximation. We show numerically that, if the CPB decay time is smaller tha...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) has been traditionally described as the association of recurrent or bilateral optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (LETM). Identification of aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-IgG) has deeply changed the concept of NMO. A spectrum of NMO disorders (NMOSD) has been formulated comprising conditions which include both AQP4-IgG seropositivity and one of...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the diagnostic utility and clinical characteristics of painful tonic spasm (PTS) in neuromyelitis optica (NMO). DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING Two referral hospitals. PATIENTS Forty patients who had NMO spectrum disorder with anti-aquaporin 4 autoantibody or met the revised diagnostic criteria for definite NMO; 35 patients with multiple sclerosis; and 41 patien...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS and affects women of childbearing age. Most patients with NMO have circulating Abs, termed NMO-IgG, against the astrocytic water channel protein aquaporin-4. In the CNS, NMO-IgG causes complement-mediated astrocyte damage, inflammatory cell infiltration, and myelin loss. In this study, we show that aquaporin-4 is exp...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a devastating neurologic disease characterized by severe optic neuritis and transverse myelitis. Recently, its disease-specific serum autoantibody, NMO-IgG, was discovered with indirect immunofluorescence. However, the substrates of the immunofluorescence assay were not human but mouse brain tissues, which could influence the sensitivity and specificity of the anti...

Eosinophils are abundant in inflammatory demyelinating lesions in neuromyelitis optica (NMO). We used cell culture, ex vivo spinal cord slices, and in vivo mouse models of NMO to investigate the role of eosinophils in NMO pathogenesis and the therapeutic potential of eosinophil inhibitors. Eosinophils cultured from mouse bone marrow produced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) ...