UltraAIE

In this proposal we aim to study why and how the immune system that is actually meant to protect us from infections and cancer can erroneously attack nerve cells in the brain. The condition is named autoimmune encephalitis (AIE) and can cause – among others – progressive memory loss, mood disturbance and seizures. We previously found genes that make some people more likely to develop the disease. We believe that it is now important to understand how exactly immune cells in AIE are different from healthy persons. We are a group of researchers treating and studying many affected patients and we have a lot of material from patients available to start our study. We have also developed new technologies that give us very detailed information about the immune cells from AIE patients. Especially, these technologies tell us exactly how immune cells react when they are in direct contact with the brain. This combination of having many rare samples and new technologies makes us especially well equipped to undertake the present study. In the future we hope to improve diagnosis and treatment of AIE with our work.