Purpose: To report a case of orbital fat expansion leading to globe prolapse in a Graves' disease patient undergoing high-dose glucocorticoid therapy. To evaluate the growth factor receptor specificities of plasma autoantibodies in Graves' disease patients who exhibited contrasting subtypes of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, i.e. orbital fat expansion-type vs. infiltrative.
Methods: Sera from Graves' orbitopathy and control patients with or without Graves' disease were subjected to protein-A affinity chromatography to obtain immunoglobulin G. A (1/50th to 1/1600th) range in dilutions of the protein-A eluate fraction was incubated for four days at 37 degrees C with bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells to test for endothelial cell inhibition or stimulation. Growth stimulatory autoantibodies were co-incubated with specific neutralizing anti-insulin like growth factor 1 receptor antibodies or anti-basic fibroblast growth factor antibodies to assess autoantibody specificity in contrasting Graves' orbitopathy subtypes.
Results: We observed increased mean endothelial cell growth promoting activity in the protein-A eluates of serum from eighteen patients with active Graves' disease (117 ± 28%, n = 18) compared to mean endothelial cell activity (89 ± 10%, n = 13, P = 0.003) in thirteen adults without Graves' disease. The protein-A eluate fraction in acute infiltrative-type Graves' orbitopathy contained a high titer (> 1:1000) of endothelial cell stimulatory activity which was significantly neutralized by specific monoclonal anti-human insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor antibodies. The protein-A eluate fraction in fat expansion-type Graves' orbitopathy contained endothelial cell inhibitory activity (at low titers) and stimulatory activity (at high titers), and the latter stimulatory activity was completely neutralized by specific anti-basic fibroblast growth factor antibodies.
Conclusion: Graves' disease suffering globe prolapse secondary to marked orbital fat-expansion had coexisting plasma fibroblast growth factor-inhibitory and -stimulatory autoantibodies. The latter was completely neutralized by anti-basic fibroblast growth factor antibodies.
Aims: To test whether neurite-inhibitory plasma autoantibodies in chronic schizophrenia activate Gq/11- and Gi- coupled signaling pathways downstream of 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor activation; and for modulation of serotonergic signaling by the metabotropic 2/3 receptor agonist LY379268.
Methods: Plasma from five older adults with chronic schizophrenia and eight age-matched patients having another neuropsychiatric, immune or metabolic disorder was subjected to Protein-A affinity chromatography to obtain IgG autoantibodies. Mean neurite retraction (5 minutes) or cell survival (24 hours) was determined in mouse N2A neuroblastoma cells incubated with autoantibodies in the presence or absence of specific antagonists of the Gq/11/PLC/IP3R signaling pathway, Gi-coupled, beta-arrestin2-directed pathways, or LY379268.
Results: Chronic schizophrenia plasma autoantibodies- mediated dose- and time-dependent acute N2A neurite retraction was completely prevented by M100907, a selective 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor antagonist. LY379268 promoted autoantibody-induced neurite retraction causing a shift-to-the-left in the dose-response curve. Antagonists of the RhoA/Rho kinase and Gq/11/PLC/IP3R signaling pathways blocked autoantibody-mediated neurite retraction. Chronic schizophrenia plasma autoantibodies mediated increased N2A cell survival which was blocked by LY379268, pertussis toxin, and antagonists of PI3-kinase- mediated survival signaling.
Conclusion: Schizophrenia plasma autoantibodies activate the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor positively coupled to Gq/11/PLC/IP3R pathway and RhoA/Rho kinase signaling activation in promoting acute N2A cell neurite retraction. Autoantibodies in a subset of patients experiencing hallucinations promoted increased N2A cell survival mediated (in part) via a pertussis-toxin sensitive, Gi-coupled, PI3-kinase-dependent mechanism. Positive modulation of 5-HT2AR-mediated neurite retraction by LY379268 suggests the autoantibodies may target (in part) the 5-HT2AR/mGlu2R heteromer.