Study demonstrates clinical value of the Cunningham Panel™ and accuracy in patients with symptoms of an autoimmune encephalopathy

Antineuronal antibodies correlate with pre- and post-treatment neuropsychiatric symptoms

This newly published case series examined 58 patients tested with the Cunningham Panel™ who were diagnosed with the infection-triggered autoimmune encephalopathy — Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infections (PANDAS) or Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).

The authors examined whether changes in pre- and post-treatment symptoms correlated with anti-neuronal antibody titers and the neuronal cell stimulation assay measured by the Cunningham Panel™.

“This study revealed a strong positive association between changes in neuropsychiatric symptoms and changes in the level of antineuronal antibodies and antibody-mediated CaMKII human neuronal cell activation,” said Shimasaki.

Additionally, this study evaluated the Panel’s clinical performance for reproducibility and reliability. The authors also examined whether these assays might serve as biological evidence for monitoring treatment response in this patient population and assist in predicting effectiveness of antimicrobial and immunomodulatory therapy.

“These study findings support clinical utility of the antineuronal and cell-stimulatory assays comprising the Cunningham Panel™ as an aid in diagnosis, and laboratory evidence supporting an underlying autoimmune etiology,” ¹ the authors concluded.

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