Collection of Biological Samples From Patients With Rare Neurological Diseases
Collection of Biological Samples From Patients With Rare Neurological Diseases
The aim of this project is to improve biological collections of patients presenting rare
 neurological disorders with known or suspected autoimmune origin. This collection will
 provide appropriate biological samples to identify new biomarkers and to be accessible to the
 medical, scientific and industrial communities for the identification of new therapeutic
 strategies.
Neuroimmunology is a rapidly expanding field since major advances have been made in basic
 immunology and numerous new clinical entities have been identified in the last 10 years. Even
 if these discoveries have led to major advances in patient's management and treatment, a lot
 of work needs to be done to improve the diagnosis and prognostic biomarkers. It is widely
 known that the immune system is implicated in a variety of neurological disorders such as
 infections, encephalitis or multiple sclerosis. Numerous neurological disorders affecting the
 central and peripheral nervous system can be attributed to the immune system and need to be
 recognized as some of them can be cured by appropriate immunotherapy. These neurological
 disorders include autoimmune encephalitis and paraneoplastic neurological syndromes but also
 myasthenia, chronic demyelinating inflammatory polyneuropathy and other neuromuscular
 pathologies.

 These neurological disorders are characterized by the presence of autoantibodies in the
 patient's sera or cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). These autoantibodies are generally highly
 specific and necessary to make the diagnosis. However, in some cases, despite strong clinical
 arguments for a neuroimmunological disorder, we do not identify autoantibodies, leading to
 inappropriate treatment and a blind follow-up considering the risk of recurrence or of
 associated tumor. Furthermore, even if the specific role of some autoantibodies or of immune
 T cells in some of these pathologies are suspected or already documented, for most of them
 the exact mechanism is still unknown. We need to explore the sera and CSF of these patients
 to identify new diagnosis and prognosis biomarker. Moreover, the availability of immune cells
 isolated from these patients will help us to decipher the pathophysiological mechanisms to
 create new therapeutic strategies. For this, animal models are already available in Centre
 Physiopathology Toulouse and in the French reference center in Lyon. As genetic
 susceptibilities may underlie, at least in part, the variability of the clinical
 manifestations and of the response to treatment, DNA from patients will be collected and
 immune genes sequencing will be compared to other control groups, included international
 database.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  all patients with neurological disorders, with known or probable autoimmune
 involvement. This includes adults and children and peripheral and/or central nervous
 system symptoms.

 -  Social coverage up to date.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients with neurological damage from which the autoimmune character can be excluded.

 -  Known anemia and hemoglobin <10 g / dl

 -  Patients under protective supervision (guardianship, curators)

 -  Pregnant or breastfeeding woman