Antibodies from patients with neuromyelitis optica bind to the water channel aquaporin-4 (yellow) in brain tissue.

Autoantibodies produced during a severe variant of multiple sclerosis (MS) latch on to water channels in the brain, according to Lennon and colleagues on page 473.

Optic–spinal MS (or neuromyelitis optica, NMO) is a severe demyelinating disease that affects the spinal cord and optic nerves and is often misdiagnosed as classical MS, despite the absence of typical MS-like brain lesions. This group recently described an antibody that was present in the serum of up to 70% of patients with NMO, but was never found in patients with classical MS. The antibody bound to an unidentified antigen prominent at the blood–brain barrier.

Lennon and her colleagues now identify the target of the antibody as the water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4). AQP4 is the most abundant water channel in the brain...

The Rockefeller University Press
2005
The Rockefeller University Press
2005
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