Autoimmune neurology and Cerebrospinal fluid laboratory – Jakob Theorell team

We do translational research in the area of autoimmune neurology, especially autoimmune encephalitis. Our projects range from immunocellular investigations aiming at elucidation of disease mechanisms, over diagnostic improvements to clinical trials. Dr Theorell is responsible for the research laboratory, Likvorlaboratoriet, at the Unit of Neurology, Karolinska University Hospital. Here, cutting-edge diagnostic methodology is tested in a near-clinical setting, enabling immediate translation.

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Four people wearing red tops, looking at the camera and smiling.
Theorell team wearing red on World Encephalitis Day.

Our research

We study autoantibody-driven autoimmune encephalitides. These peculiar disorders are antigen-specific and thus knock out the function of individual neuronal surface proteins. This means that many of the disorders show near-pathognomonic traits, such as faciobrachial dystonic seizures in patients in LGI1 encephalitis and rapid-onset disorganised psychotic features and catatonia in NMDA-R encephalitis. Furthermore, the immunological mechanisms differ from syndrome to syndrome; LGI1-encephalitis, e..g., has a very strong association to HLA-DRB1*07:01, whereas no HLA-association has been established for NMDA-R encephalitis, that instead is associated to viral encephalitides as well as ovarian teratomas.

Autoantibody-driven autoimmune encephalitides have recently been identified and thus the group of disorders as well as the incidence are increasing. Our team aims to study these disorders from many angles, including epidemiological projects, diagnostic method development (both wet lab and software-based) as well as immunpathogenetic studies. We are also active in the national, Scandinavian and international autoimmune encephalitis community, and are in close contact with Encephalitis International, the largest patient organisation in the world for encephalitis survivors.

Publications

Selected publications