Collection of Biological Samples From Patients With Rare Neurological Diseases (EXPLAINEUR)

Prospective 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.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Nervous System Diseases
• Intervention / Treatment: Biological: Blood collection on admission and longitudinally

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 1000

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Chloé Bost, PharmD, PhD; Phone Number: 0033 5 61 77 61 44; Email: bost.c@chu-toulouse.fr

Study Locations

• France
  • Toulouse, France, 31059
    • Recruiting
    • Purpan University Hospital
    • Contact: Chloé Bost, PharmD, PhD; Phone Number: 0033 5 61 77 61 44; Email: bost.c@chu-toulouse.fr

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 99 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

patients followed at the Toulouse University Hospital and presenting rare neurological disorders with known or suspected autoimmune origin

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
patients with rare autoimmune neurological diseases	Biological: Blood collection on admission and longitudinally; Biological samples will be collected in the normal diagnosis and follow-up process. Only blood will be taken in larger quantity (8 tubes of 7mL).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Building a collection of biological samples and clinical-biological data from patients with rare autoimmune neurological diseases	Blood sampling	Day 0 and through study completion, an average of 1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Identification of new autoantibodies.	ELISA	Day 0 and through study completion, an average of 1 year
Identification of biomarkers regarding the severity (such as cytokines, axonal damages...) in order to help the therapeutic decisions.	Analysis of the phenotypic profiling of blood immune cells by multicolor fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis and of the transcriptomic profiling of blood immune cells by RNA sequencing	Day 0 and through study completion, an average of 1 year
Exploration of the pathophysiological mechanisms of rare autoimmune neurological pathologies.	Knock-out or knock-in animal models for one specific protein will be used to determine in vivo if the pathophysiological mechanisms of rare autoimmune neurological disorder can be induced by the abnormal expression of this protein.	Day 0 and through study completion, an average of 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Toulouse
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Chloé Bost, PharmD, PhD, University Hospital, Toulouse

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 12, 2020
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 3, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 23, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 5, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): January 6, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): July 24, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 21, 2023
• Last Verified: July 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: autoimmune encephalitis; paraneoplastic neurological syndrome; myasthenia; paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration; rare neuropathologies with known/suspected autoimmune origin
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nervous System Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: RC31/20/0150

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No