Antibody induction of lupus-like neuropsychiatric manifestations

Although systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is usually evaluated with regard to autoimmune reactivity toward the kidney, there are multiple psychiatric abnormalities associated with this autoimmune disease. Lupus-prone male NZM88 mice, derived from NZB/NZW F1 mice, develop early neuropsychiatric manifestations without any signs of nephritis. In addition to the usual repertoire of antibody specificities, including autoantibodies to dsDNA and renal antigens, mice of this inbred strain express autoantibodies to numerous brain antigens. Here, we show that autoantibodies to brain antigens, assessed by Western analysis, are as individually varied as are the diverse neuropsychiatric manifestations observed in SLE patients. Additionally, a monoclonal antibody derived from the spleen of an untreated NZM88 male when injected into healthy BALB/cByJ, but not C57BL/6J, mice induced behaviors similar to those of lupus-prone NZM88 mice. This monoclonal antibody, which is specific to dynamin-1, binds preferentially in BALB/cByJ cortex and induces substantial expression of cytokines mainly in the hypothalamus. Thus, an antibody to just one brain antigen can induce multiple behavioral changes, and multiple autoantibodies to different brain antigens exist in lupus-prone mice; however, susceptibility to the induction of neurobehavioral deficits is dependent on host genetics.