No Evidence of Autoimmunity to Human OX1 or OX2 Orexin Receptors in Pandemrix-Vaccinated Narcoleptic Children
Posted by Adam Awdish on
Pooled Human AB Serum Off The Clot Heat Inactivated from Innovative Research was used in the following study:
Krister Melen, Pinja Jalkanen, Jyrki P. Kukkonen, Markku Partinen, Hanna Nohynek, Arja Vuorela, Outi Vaarala, Tobias L. Freitag, Seppo Meri, Ilkka Julkunen
Journal of Translational Autoimmunity
May 1, 2020
Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder where diagnoses are divided into two groups; Narcolepsy Type 1 (NT1) is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, disturbed sleep at night, and cataplexy. People suffering from NT1 may also experience symptoms related to REM sleep, such as hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. NT1 onset in childhood before age 10 is rare, as symptoms typically start to show during adolescence or young adulthood. Narcolepsy Type 2 (NT2) is characterized by normal levels of central nervous system orexin along with an absence of cataplexy.
In 2010 and 2011, after a campaign promoting the AS03-adjuvanted Pandemrix flu vaccine, there was a significant increase in childhood and adolescent cases of narcolepsy observed in several countries. It was previously suggested that a surface-exposed region of influenza A nucleoprotein, which is part of the Pandemrix vaccine, shares surface markers with the first extracellular domain of the human OX2 orexin/ hypocretin receptor, which results in the creation of autoantibodies.
This study analyzed whether flu infection or Pandemrix vaccination contributed to the development of autoantibodies to the orexin precursor protein or the OX1 or OX2 receptors. The results suggested that none of the infected patients, healthy control patients, or vaccinated infected patients showed autoantibody responses to prepro-orexin or orexin receptors.
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