Autoimmunity in nodding syndrome

Nature: In Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan, nodding syndrome causes children's heads to drop and results in epileptic seizures, cognitive impairment and sometimes death. Although people with the syndrome are often infected with the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus (pictured), researchers have not found a causal link between the two.
Now, a team led by Avindra Nath at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, has discovered that people with nodding syndrome have higher levels of antibodies against a protein called leiomodin-1 than do healthy people from the same village. The researchers show that leiomodin-1 is made by human neurons and by key parts of the mouse brain. This protein is structurally similar to those made by O. volvulus, and antibodies that react against O. volvulus do the same against leiomodin-1, suggesting an autoimmune response.
People with the syndrome currently receive anti-epilepsy drugs, but the findings suggest that they might also benefit from therapies that modulate the immune system, the authors say.
Sci. Transl. Med. 9, eaaf6953 (2017)

International study suggests Nodding syndrome caused by response to parasitic protein

NIH: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have uncovered new clues to the link between Nodding syndrome, a devastating form of pediatric epilepsy found in specific areas of east Africa, and a parasitic worm that can cause river blindness. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggests that the mysterious neurological disease may be caused by an autoimmune response to the parasitic proteins. “This study identifies a cause of Nodding syndrome. But more broadly, these findings provide a novel perspective on epilepsy and suggest that some forms of this neurological disorder may be autoimmune in nature,” said Avindra Nath, M.D., clinical director of the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).