Markers Autoantibodies as Indicators of Cognitive Dysfunction in Children and Adults

Background: The inborn or acquired cognitive deficiencies in children and adults are a serious medical and social problem. The situation is aggravated by the fact that in most cases the causes and mechanisms of cognitive impairment remain poorly understood and objective laboratory diagnostic methods for early detection of such situations are not developed.

Multiple empirical data indicate to functional anomalies related to cholinergic neurons of basal ganglia of the forebrain accompanied cognitive dysfunctions.

Methods: Specialized variant of ELISA technology (the method ELI-Neuro-Test) was used for revealing of characteristic changes in serum immune reactivity profiles typical for persons with cognitive impairment.

Results: Characteristic changes of immune reactivity profiles were associated with auto antibodies to the brain-specific isoform of n-Cholinoreceptors. Such changes were typical for 88.7% of children with cognitive deficits of different severity (126 out of 142), but only for 8% of children without cognitive impairment (11 out of 136). The same changes were typical for adults with complaints of severe memory impairment for recent events (17 out of 21), and besides for persons with recently (less than 1 year) diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease (3 out of 4), but not for patients with Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed more 5 years (0 out of 3).

Conclusion: The method ELI-N-Test, which allows detect abnormalities of serum immunoreactivity against n-cholinoreceptor and some other neurotransmitter receptors and neuroantigens, supposedly can be used for laboratory diagnosis and laboratory confirmation of cognitive impairment (including pre-clinical stages) as well as some other forms neuropathology.

Keywords: Autoantibodies-markers, ELI-N-Test, cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia.