The aim was to analyze humoral immune response against GM1 ganglioside expressed on the surface of melanocytic cells, and the possible correlation between the level of antibodies against GM1 IgG and IgM class and melanoma progression. The study included 128 adult patients with malignant melanoma, without paraneoplastic neurologic disorders, 48 adults with dysplastic nevi and 48 healthy voluntee...

Although small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is highly responsive to chemotherapy, relapses are common, and most patients die within 2 years of diagnosis. After initial therapy, standard treatment is observation alone. We have been investigating immunization against selected gangliosides as adjuvant therapy directed against residual and presumably resistant disease persisting after chemotherapy and i...

Gangliosides are glycosphingolipids highly enriched in neural plasma membranes, where they mediate a diverse range of functions and can act as targets for auto-antibodies present in human immune-mediated neuropathy sera. The ensuing autoimmune injury results in axonal and motor nerve terminal (mNT) degeneration. Both aging and ganglioside-deficiency have been linked to impaired axonal regenerat...

INTRODUCTION Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune disorder affecting the peripheral nervous system, usually triggered by an acute infection. GBS patients are known to have antecedent bacterial infections associated with auto-antibodies to various gangliosides. This investigation aimed to evaluate GBS patients for serological evidence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection and anti GM1 gan...

Antiganglioside antibodies form an important component of the innate and adaptive B cell repertoire, where they provide antimicrobial activity through binding encapsulated bacterial glycans. In an aberrant role, they target peripheral nerve gangliosides to induce autoimmune nerve injury. An important characteristic of antiganglioside antibodies is their ability to selectively recognize highly d...

Following the mass vaccinations against pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus in 2009, a sudden increase in juvenile onset narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) was detected in several European countries where AS03-adjuvanted Pandemrix vaccine had been used. NC is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy. In human NC, the hypocretin-producing neurons in the...

Antibodies targeting major gangliosides that are broadly distributed in the nervous system are sometimes associated with clinical symptoms that imply selective nerve damage. For example, anti-GD1a antibodies are associated with acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), a form of Guillain-Barré syndrome that selectively affects motor nerves, despite reports that GD1a is present in human axons and my...

We report an ELISA-type titertray assay for autoantibodies against the ganglioside GM1. Trays were coated with ganglioside GM1 and reacted with patients' sera; bound IgM was detected with rabbit antibody to human IgM. High-titer serum from a patient was used as calibrator, another patient's serum as the positive control, and the GM1-specific cholera toxin as the control for GM1 coating. Regress...

ganglioside antibodies with lipopolysaccharide fractions of Campylobacter jejuni isolates from patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). J Neuroimmunol 1997;73:28–36. 7. Jacobs BC, Endtz HP, van der Meché FGA, Hazenberg MP, de Klerk MA, van Doorn PA. Humoral immune response against Campylobacter jejuni lipopolysaccharides in Guillain-Barré and Miller Fisher syndrome. J Neuroimmunol 1997;79:6...