[Results of clinical and immunoenzymatic studies of neurospecific leucine aminopeptidase in patients with neurologic disorders].

Leucine aminopeptidase of myelin was discovered to contain a protein subunit possessing, in contrast to the main enzymatic mass, antigenic properties and contained by different structures of the central nervous system. The protein was shown to be accumulated by neurons and astrocytes of embryonic tissue culture. The protein was absent from biological fluids of healthy persons and in schizophrenia but it was recordable in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with different forms of neurological pathology. In patients with neuronal degenerative diseases, the protein level in biological fluids in the terminal stages was significantly lower than in compensated patients.