Applying novel technologies to the cerebrospinal fluid and its cells for the benefit of improved diagnosis and treatment prediction in neuro-immunological diseases and cerebral infections
The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) contains soluble molecules such as protein, sugar and lipids, and – at least in the healthy situation – only few cellular components, i.e up to 3 cells per microliter. The analysis of CSF could be performed by many different methods, such as fluorescent-activated-cell-sorting (FACS), single cell transcriptomics (scRNAseq), or mass-spectrometry (MS/MS). However, in clinical practice only a differential blood cell count, some limited clinical chemistry measures, and immunoglobulin analysis is routinely being used (1). This routine analysis serves many purposes, but has its limitation in e.g. differentiating a viral CNS infection from an autoimmune CNS process.
In our CSF study, we analyze and compare the following methods, for an improved characterization of the content of the CSF, and hence the benefit of our patients:
In collaboration with the Departments of Neurology (Prof. S. Rauer), Psychiatry (Prof. L. Tebartz van Elst), and Gastroenterology (Dr. Sagar) we are examining the CSF of patients with a broad variety of neurological diseases, including but not limited to viral and bacterial infections and several autoimmune conditions. We postulate that different cell types can be measured when the total cell count in the CSF is high. We suspect that in certain patient groups, numerical differences in cell types will emerge. The CSF of these patients is spun down into a cellular pellet, which are then being analyzed by the following methods:
Reference
Funding
This work is supported by the Center for Chronic Immunodeficiency (CCI), Freiburg Center for Rare Diseases (FZSE).
Contact
Prof. Dr. med. Bodo Grimbacher
MEDICAL CENTER – UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG
Institute for Immunodeficiency (IFI)
Center for Chronic Immundeficiency (CCI)
Breisacher Str. 115
79106 Freiburg
Phone +49 (0)761 270-77732
E-Mail
www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/cci