General information
Inflammatory neuropathies are a diverse group of diseases characterized by the presence of an autoimmune attack on the peripheral nerves. Depending on the type of involvement, the way of presentation and the electrophysiological characteristics they are classified into different groups. They all are rare diseases and sometimes difficult to diagnose.
There are acute and chronic inflammatory neuropathies and, although they generally respond to immunomodulatory or immunosuppressive treatments, all of them can determine a significant disability in most patients.
There are acute inflammatory neuropathies such as Guillain-Barré syndrome (all variants) and chronic, such as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) or multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN). The group of inflammatory neuropathies also includes neuropathies associated with monoclonal gammopathy or vasculitic neuropathies.
These are rare diseases whose knowledge is quite limited. Furthermore, little is known of its pathophysiology, so there are no specific biomarkers and, therefore, these disases can be difficult to diagnose or go unnoticed. In some cases, for example in CIDP, the diagnosis is based solely on clinical and electrophysiological criteria, as there are no specific diagnostic biomarkers .
One of the main research lines of our group is to find biomarkers in inflammatory neuropathies that may aid diagnosis and can guide treatment. In this regard we work in 3 main lines:
- Study antiganglioside antibodies in Guillain-Barré syndrome and clinical variants. In this field we have been able to describe antiganglioside reactivities that identify subtypes of Guillain – Barré syndrome with diagnostic and prognostic specific features.
- Study the presence of autoantibodies in CIDP. In this field our primary goal is to find specific autoantibodies that serve to better diagnose this disease. Our group has reported that the presence of anti-contactin1 or anti-Neurofascin 155 antibodies is related to two specific subtypes of CIDP that do not respond well to conventional therapies. These studies may help to better manage both diagnosis and treatment of patients with CIDP.
- Finally, we are interested in studying the immunopathogenesis of these diseases to try to discover the mechanisms involved in the loss of tolerance against nerve structures and, therefore, related with the onset of the disease.