Autoantibody screening in Guillain-Barré Syndrome

A bstract Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is an acute inflammatory neuropathy with a heterogeneous presentation and pathogenesis. Serum antibodies against various gangliosides can be found in less than half of all patients in the acute phase of GBS but the target antigens remain unknown for the remaining half. Our work describes a comprehensive screening for serum autoantibodies targeting peripheral nerve tissue, cells, and purified antigens in a prospective GBS cohort including 100 patients. Our study confirms that (1) GBS patients display a very heterogeneous repertoire of autoantibodies targeting nerve cells and structures, (2) gangliosides are the most frequent antigens in GBS patients and have prognostic value, (3) a small subset of patients display antibodies targeting the myelin sheath, and (4) further antigen-discovery experiments are needed to elucidate other potential disease-specific autoantibodies in GBS.