Chronic presence of blood circulating anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies impairs cognitive function in mice

PLoS One. 2021 Sep 2;16(9):e0256972. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256972. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

High titers of anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies in brain cause anti-NMDAR1 encephalitis that displays psychiatric symptoms of schizophrenia and/or other psychiatric disorders in addition to neurological symptoms. Low titers of anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies are reported in the blood of a subset of the general human population and psychiatric patients. Since ~0.1-0.2% of blood circulating antibodies cross the blood-brain barriers and antibodies can persist for months and years in human blood, it is important to investigate whether chronic presence of these blood circulating anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies may impair human cognitive functions and contribute to the development of psychiatric symptoms. Here, we generated mice carrying low titers of anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies in blood against a single antigenic epitope of mouse NMDAR1. Mice carrying the anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies are healthy and display no differences in locomotion, sensorimotor gating, and contextual memory compared to controls. Chronic presence of the blood circulating anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies, however, is sufficient to impair T-maze spontaneous alternation in the integrity of blood-brain barriers across all 3 independent mouse cohorts, indicating a robust cognitive deficit in spatial working memory and/or novelty detection. Our studies implicate that chronic presence of low titers of blood circulating anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies may impair cognitive functions in both the general healthy human population and psychiatric patients.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adjuvants, Immunologic / administration & dosage
  • Animals
  • Autoantibodies / blood*
  • Autoantibodies / immunology*
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Blood-Brain Barrier / immunology
  • Cognition*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / blood*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / immunology*
  • Freund's Adjuvant / administration & dosage
  • Locomotion / immunology
  • Male
  • Memory, Short-Term
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Models, Animal
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis / immunology
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / chemistry
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / immunology*
  • Peptides / administration & dosage
  • Peptides / immunology
  • Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / chemistry
  • Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / immunology*
  • Spatial Memory
  • Vaccination / methods

Substances

  • Adjuvants, Immunologic
  • Autoantibodies
  • Gprin1 protein, mouse
  • NMDA receptor A1
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Peptides
  • Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate
  • Freund's Adjuvant