1. Stiff-person syndrome following West Nile fever
- Author
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Lea Markevich, Eilon D. Kirson, Ella Mendelson, Hanna Bin, Lester M. Shulman, Musa Hindiyeh, Aron S. Buchman, and Sharon Hassin-Baer
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Generalized anxiety disorder ,Glutamate decarboxylase ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Stiff-Person Syndrome ,Viral Nonstructural Proteins ,Aminobutyric acid ,Central nervous system disease ,Epilepsy ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,medicine ,Humans ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Autoantibodies ,biology ,Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ,business.industry ,Glutamate Decarboxylase ,West Syndrome ,medicine.disease ,Isoenzymes ,Immunology ,biology.protein ,Neurology (clinical) ,Antibody ,business ,West Nile virus ,Stiff person syndrome ,West Nile Fever - Abstract
Stiff-person syndrome is a rare autoimmune disorder associated with antibodies against glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the key enzyme in gamma-aminobutyric acid synthesis. In most cases, a trigger cannot be identified.To describe a 41-year-old man who developed stiff-person syndrome and antibodies to GAD following acute West Nile virus infection.A case report and a search in GenBank for common epitopes.The search revealed a stretch of 12 amino acids in the NS1 protein of West Nile virus with a high degree of homology to the GAD65 region (an isoform of GAD) containing the PEVKEK motif.Cross-reactivity between antibodies directed against West Nile virus and GAD may have contributed to the development of stiff-person syndrome in this patient.
- Published
- 2004