Mechanisms of Action of Anti-GM1 and Anti-GQ1b Ganglioside Antibodies in Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Anti-GM1 and anti-GQ1b ganglioside antibodies are found in association with acute and chronic peripheral neuropathies, including Guillain-Barré syndrome. They are believed to arise as a result of molecular mimicry with immunogenic microbial polysaccharides. Although anti-ganglioside antibodies are suspected to play a causal role in neuropathy pathogenesis, the details of this have yet to be proven. The approach in this laboratory to solving this issue has been to generate anti-GM1 and anti-GQ1b monoclonal antibodies from peripheral blood lymphocytes of affected patients and to study their immunolocalization in peripheral nerve and their electrophysiologic effects in animal models in which peripheral nerve sites are exposed to anti-ganglioside antibodies. These data show that anti-ganglioside antibody-reactive epitopes are widely distributed in peripheral nerve and can cause electrophysiologic abnormalities in a variety of model systems; thus, these data support the view that anti-ganglioside antibody-reactive epitopes may directly contribute to neuropathy pathogenesis.