In childhood acute disseminated encephalomyelitis antibodies to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein are associated with a marked inflammatory phenotype

In autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) disorders the identification of biomarkers related to the aberrant immune response is an important research aim with a potentially huge impact on clinical practice. As a recent example neuromyelitis optica (NMO) may be considered where the usage of antibodies against the astrocytic aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channel as a biomarker leads to better defined patient cohorts, helps investigating and predicting the disease course, improves our understanding of disease pathogenesis, and, finally, facilitates tailored clinical trials.

Remarkably, for multiple sclerosis (MS) as the most common chronic neuroimmunological disease in Western countries, the establishment of such a biomarker has been difficult. This is reflected by the rise and …