Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Department of Neuroscience, Institute for Experimental Medical Research (DETAE), Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
PLoS One. 2018 Dec 6;13(12):e0208412. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208412. eCollection 2018.
The α7 acetylcholine receptor (AChR) has been linked with the onset of psychotic symptoms and we hypothesized therefore that it might also be an autoimmune target. Here, we describe a new radioimmunoassay (RIA) using iodine 125-labelled α-bungarotoxin and membrane extract from transfected HEK293 cells expressing human α7 AChR. This RIA was used to analyze sera pertaining to a cohort of 711 subjects, comprising 368 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, 140 with bipolar disorder, 58 individuals diagnosed of other mental disorders, and 118 healthy comparison subjects. We identified one patient whose serum tested positive although with very low levels (0.2 nM) for α7 AChR-specific antibodies by RIA. Three out of 711 sera contained antibodies against iodine 125-labelled α-bungarotoxin, because they precipitated with it in the absence of α7 AChR. This first evidence suggests that autoantibodies against α7 AChR are absent or very rare in these clinical groups.
α7 乙酰胆碱受体 (AChR) 与精神病症状的发作有关，因此我们假设它也可能是自身免疫的靶标。在这里，我们使用碘 125 标记的 α-银环蛇毒素和转染表达人 α7 AChR 的 HEK293 细胞的膜提取物描述了一种新的放射免疫分析 (RIA)。该 RIA 用于分析来自 711 名受试者的血清，其中包括 368 名被诊断为精神分裂症谱系障碍的患者、140 名双相情感障碍患者、58 名被诊断为其他精神障碍的患者和 118 名健康对照受试者。我们发现一名患者的血清通过 RIA 检测出针对 α7 AChR 的特异性抗体呈阳性，但水平非常低 (0.2 nM)。711 份血清中有 3 份含有针对碘 125 标记的 α-银环蛇毒素的抗体，因为它们在没有 α7 AChR 的情况下与之沉淀。这是第一个表明这些临床群体中不存在或非常罕见针对 α7 AChR 的自身抗体的证据。
