Final Pepsi Report

[P_Mom]

Final Progress Report ~ Pepsi Global Giving Project PANDAS

 

 

Dr. Cunningham and her lab thank everyone for the opportunity to advance the work on PANDAS and related diseases.

 

Pepsi Global Giving Funds have allowed us to continue research on in vitro tissue culture studies of the autoantibodies against the brain in the childhood illness named pediatric autoimmune neurologic disorder associated with streptococcal infections or PANDAS. PANDAS is a debilitating childhood illness leading to obsessions, tics and other symptoms such as enuresis and anorexia. PANDAS illnesses debilitate the entire family. Studies suggest that streptococcal and potentially other infections may lead to the induction of autoantibodies against the brain and trigger the onset of disease. Pepsi funding helped us to hire an expert B cell immunologist who is investigating monoclonal antibodies produced from PANDAS. This new information will allow us to look more closely at many more autoantibodies from PANDAS in in vitro experiments. The main focus of our studies has been investigation of antibody producing B lymphocyte cell lines(antibody producing cells) previously produced in our laboratory from Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder or PANDAS. B lymphocyte hybridoma cell lines were cultured by tissue culture in Iscove's Modified Dulbecco's medium and the antibodies produced by these cell lines were analyzed for reactivity with brain autoantigens which may be targeted in PANDAS. Our hypothesis is that autoantibodies are produced against the brain after infections and can signal neuronal cells in the brain and cause abnormal neurologic symptoms including movement and behavioral disturbances such as tics and obsessive compulsive disorder.

 

New data may explain how signaling in brain tissues may play a role in inducing abnormal amounts of neurotransmitters in the brain. We know that neuronal cell signaling is elevated in cultured neuronal cells when treated with antibodies from PANDAS. The antibody reactions may be linked to symptoms to better understand how the antibodies may play a role in disease. Our experiments have utilized the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay(ELISA) to detect IgG autoantibodies sera from PANDAS and related diseases. Antibody reactions such as the neuronal cell signaling may be linked to symptoms. We hope to better understand the antibodies and how they may play a role in disease. Our experiments will continue to test monoclonal antibodies from PANDAS for binding in the ELISA and for functional signaling of neuronal cells. Our in vitro studies will provide new data that can be translated to human disease.

 

 

 

 

 

She ended an e-mail to me saying... "Thank you for this miracle that you pulled out of heaven for us." The "you" in the statement is for all of us....all of us on here who worked so hard to make this funding and research a reality. Thank you to all who participated, voted, etc. -Kelly

[P_Mom]

Please be aware that this is a very brief summary of the findings. Dr. Cunningham will be publishing her findings with much more detail soon. She told me "the papers are all ready." So, please do not feel that this is it....there is so much more that she did not want released before the papers are published!

 

Thanks.