Susana Aznar
From damage repair to autoimmunity: flipping the coin of immune surveillance in neurodegeneration
Susana Aznar, Head of Research Unit, Department of Neurology, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, has been awarded a Lundbeck Foundation Experiments research grant worth DKK 1,798,356.
The causes behind Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) are unknown. The hypothesis of this project is that an autoimmune response is a driver of the disease. Searching for autoimmune signatures across brain and peripheral immune compartments, the experiment will make use of highly specialized protein and gene screening approaches to map antibody composition in affected and unaffected brain areas, and search for antibodies with an increased self-recognition profile based on other autoimmune diseases. Immune cells will be isolated from blood from these patients and screened for receptors recognizing these antibodies epitopes. If successful, the results will open up for a new venue of research giving hope to hundreds of patients with no present cure available.
