Autoimmune and infectious encephalitis
Prof. Dr. med. Kurt-Wolfram Sühs
The working group focuses on clinical and basic research projects on neuroimmunological mechanisms in inflammatory diseases of the nervous system, in particular autoimmune and infectious encephalitides.
Overall, the understanding of neuroimmunological diseases and the associated treatment options have improved considerably as a result of global research efforts, although there are still significant individual differences in symptom severity and prognosis. Autoimmune and infectious encephalitides in particular are sometimes serious, acute-subacute manifestations of diseases of the central nervous system. Therefore, they are often initially treated in intensive care, followed by normal inpatient and finally outpatient treatment, which results in different clinical aspects and questions.
In our working group, for example, the influence of ion channels on experimental models and in cell cultures is investigated in basic scientific experimental work. In addition, the clinical characterization and investigation of biomaterial, in particular changes in the cerebrospinal fluid, is carried out using modern techniques such as mass spectrometry. In addition to interdisciplinary collaborations (neuroradiology, psychiatry, immunology, etc.), due to the rarity of certain diseases such as antibody-mediated encephalitis, collaboration takes place in large network associations (e.g. GENERATE). Experimentally, there is close cooperation with the Twincore, particularly with regard to infectious diseases.
The central questions of the working group are which pathophysiological mechanisms underlie these diseases, which factors influence the diseases and disease severity and, in particular, whether these influences can be utilized translationally for diagnostics, individual prognosis assessment and therapy.
Selected publications:
Schwenkenbecher P, Skripuletz T, Lange P, Dürr M, Konen FF, Möhn N, Ringelstein M, Menge T, Friese MA, Melzer N, Malter MP, Häusler M, Thaler FS, Stangel M, Lewerenz J, Sühs KW; German Network for Research on Autoimmune Encephalitis. Intrathecal Antibody Production Against Epstein-Barr, Herpes Simplex, and Other Neurotropic Viruses in Autoimmune Encephalitis. Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm. 2021 Aug 24;8(6):e1062.
Baumgärtel C, Skripuletz T, Kronenberg J, Stangel M, Schwenkenbecher P, Sinke C, Müller-Vahl KR, Sühs KW. Immunity in Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome: Results from a Cerebrospinal Fluid Study. Front Neurol. 2019 Jul 4; 10:732.
Sühs KW, Novoselova N, Kuhn M, Seegers L, Kaever V, Muller-Vahl K, et al. Kynurenine is a cerebrospinal fluid biomarker for bacterial and viral CNS infections. J Infect Dis 2019 Jun 5; 220(1):127-138.
Sühs KW, Fairless R, Williams SK, Heine K, Cavalie A, Diem R. N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade is neuroprotective in experimental autoimmune optic neuritis. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 2014 Jun;73(6):507-18.
Sühs KW, Hein K, Sattler MB, Gorlitz A, Ciupka C, Scholz K, et al. A randomized, double-blind, phase 2 study of erythropoietin in optic neuritis. Ann Neurol 2012 Aug;72(2):199-210.
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