Association of serum Gasdermin D with Anti ‐N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor encephalitis

In this study, we measured serum levels of GSDMD in 42 patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis and 25 healthy controls. Of the 42 patients, 17 had follow-up evaluation of GSDMD levels and modified Rankin scale (mRS) scores at 3 months. Association of GSDMD with anti-NMDAR encephalitis and its clinical parameters were evaluated. Serum GSDMD levels were significantly higher in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis than in healthy controls (p = 0.002,padjusted = 0.009), especially in males (p = 0.001,padjusted = 0.022). This was also evident in patients with severe impairment (mRS>3 vs mRS ≤ 3;p< 0.001). Serum GSDMD was associated with mRS before and after adjustment for age and gender (r = 0.440 and 0.430,p = 0.004 and 0.006, respectively) as well as serum CH50 (r = −0.419 and −0.426,p = 0.011 and 0.012, respectively). Furthermore, 3-month follow-up evaluation revealed that after treatment, anti-NMDAR encephalitis patients had significantly decreased serum GSDMD levels (p =0.007) and significantly decreased mRS scores (p = 0.002) compared with before treatment. Furthermore, the changes in mRS scores were negatively associated with changes in GSDMD levels, although the associations were not significant (r = −0.222,p = 0.393). Our findings show that serum GSDMD levels are elevated in anti-NMDAR encephalitis and are associated with disease prognosis.

Source: Journal of Neurochemistry - August 21, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Xiaoyu Ma, Chen Chen, Yaxin Lu, Ling Fang, Baohua Cao, Xueqiang Hu, Wei Qiu, Yaqing Shu Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research