[S-16] Symposium 16
Autoimmune epilepsy

[S-16-1] Pathophysiology of autoimmune epilepsy

^○Bo Sun^1,2, Sarosh Irani¹ (1.University of Oxford, UK, 2.Association of British Neurologists, UK)

The epilepsy syndrome of autoimmune etiology, namely, autoimmune epilepsy has attracted attention in recent years. Neural-specific autoantibodies such as anti-NMDA-R and LGI1 antibodies were found, which cause autoimmune epilepsy. Seronegative patients are also existed, and a diagnostic algorithm is required for the diagnosis. Immune therapy should be started in the acute phase as soon as possible in addition to antiepileptic therapy. Especially, new-onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is one of the most challenging status in terms of treatment of acute phase. On the other hand, the presence of smoldering type should be noted with clinical variabilities of autoimmune epilepsy. In this session, pathophysiology, proposal for diagnostic algorithm, management of acute phase, and clinical variabilities of autoimmune epilepsies will be presented by experts in this field.

Dr Bo Sun is an academic clinical research fellow at the University of Oxford currently undertaking a DPhil in clinical neurosciences. He works within the renown Oxford Autoimmune Neurology Group and is supervised by Associate Professor Sarosh Irani, Dr Patrick Waters and Dr Rachael Bashford-Rogers of the Wellcome Centre of Human Genetics. He was awarded the Association of British Neurologists’ clinical research training fellowship in 2018 and is funded by the Patrick Berthoud Charitable Foundation Trust for his research into antibody-mediated autoimmune encephalitis. His research is focused on elucidating the immunobiology and pathogenesis of autoimmune encephalitis by using both molecular and genomic techniques to interrogate the neuronal-targeting autoantibody repertoire.