Project 1: """"""""Mechanisms of neurotoxicity of lupus anti-NMDAR antibodies: Electrophysiology to Behavior"""""""" (Huerta PI). The objective of this project is to examine whether key syndromes of neuropsychiatric lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) are caused by autoantibodies that bind the NR2A and NR2B subunits of the N-methyl-o-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). This synaptic receptor is highly expressed in forebrain neurons and is crucially involved in synaptic plasticity, which is regarded as the cellular process underlying memory storage. However, hyperactivity of the NMDAR can trigger excitotoxic effects. Our hypothesis is that certain antibodies function as partial agonists while others function as antagonists for the NMDAR, depending on the mode of interaction with the NR2A and NR2B subunits. Chronic exposure to the anti-NMDAR antibodies would lead to homeostatic imbalance and eventual death of the NMDAR-containing neurons.
We aim to determine the toxic potential of a battery of murine and human anti-NMDAR antibodies, the latter having been selected either from a combinatorial library generated from spleen cells of a lupus patient or directly from antigenspecific peripheral blood B cells of three additional patients. We will expand our existing panel by isolating new human, anti-NMDAR antibodies. We will study the mechanisms by which the anti-NMDAR antibodies alter the physiological responses of the NMDAR in neurons of the hippocampus, a brain region critically targeted in NPSLE. Furthermore, we will determine the deleterious effects of the anti-NR2 antibodies over synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Finally, we will study the effects of anti-NMDAR antibodies on behaving mice performing a series of cognitive tasks that depend on the integrity of NMDAR-rich brain regions. Thus, we will examine how autoantibodies affect the brain, from the cellular to the behavioral level. Overall, we believe these studies will allow us to determine the functional mechanisms by which the antiNMDAR antibodies cause their neurotoxic effect in the brain. Moreover, we will gain an understanding of the effect of the anti- NMDAR antibodies on the synaptic plasticity processes that underlie memory processing. We foresee that these studies might be relevant for therapeutic protocols in NPSLE.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Program Projects (P01)
Project #
5P01AI073693-05
Application #
8380678
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAI1-KS-I)
Project Start
Project End
2014-07-31
Budget Start
2012-08-01
Budget End
2013-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$382,372
Indirect Cost
$110,433
Name
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Department
Type
DUNS #
110565913
City
Manhasset
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
11030
Mader, Simone; Brimberg, Lior; Soltys, John N et al. (2018) Mutations of Recombinant Aquaporin-4 Antibody in the Fc Domain Can Impair Complement-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity and Transplacental Transport. Front Immunol 9:1599
Suurmond, Jolien; Atisha-Fregoso, Yemil; Marasco, Emiliano et al. (2018) Loss of an IgG plasma cell checkpoint in patients with lupus. J Allergy Clin Immunol :
Nestor, Jacquelyn; Arinuma, Yoshiyuki; Huerta, Tomás S et al. (2018) Lupus antibodies induce behavioral changes mediated by microglia and blocked by ACE inhibitors. J Exp Med 215:2554-2566
Kim, Sook Young; Son, Myoungsun; Lee, Sang Eun et al. (2018) High-Mobility Group Box 1-Induced Complement Activation Causes Sterile Inflammation. Front Immunol 9:705
Malkiel, Susan; Barlev, Ashley N; Atisha-Fregoso, Yemil et al. (2018) Plasma Cell Differentiation Pathways in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Front Immunol 9:427
VanPatten, Sonya; Sun, Shan; He, Mingzhu et al. (2016) Amending HIV Drugs: A Novel Small-Molecule Approach To Target Lupus Anti-DNA Antibodies. J Med Chem 59:8859-8867
Vingtdeux, Valérie; Chang, Eric H; Frattini, Stephen A et al. (2016) CALHM1 deficiency impairs cerebral neuron activity and memory flexibility in mice. Sci Rep 6:24250
Brimberg, L; Mader, S; Jeganathan, V et al. (2016) Caspr2-reactive antibody cloned from a mother of an ASD child mediates an ASD-like phenotype in mice. Mol Psychiatry 21:1663-1671
Honig, Gerard; Mader, Simone; Chen, Huiyi et al. (2016) Blood-Brain Barrier Deterioration and Hippocampal Gene Expression in Polymicrobial Sepsis: An Evaluation of Endothelial MyD88 and the Vagus Nerve. PLoS One 11:e0144215
Malkiel, Susan; Jeganathan, Venkatesh; Wolfson, Stacey et al. (2016) Checkpoints for Autoreactive B Cells in the Peripheral Blood of Lupus Patients Assessed by Flow Cytometry. Arthritis Rheumatol 68:2210-20

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