Are anti-ganglioside antibodies of clinical value in multifocal motor neuropathy?

Abstract

Pestronk and colleagues1 first reported antibodies to GMl ganglioside in a treatable form of multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) in 1988. In subsequent years, anti-GM1 and other ganglioside antibodies were reported in a variety of other disorders, including motor neuron disease (MND), Guillain-Barre syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), monoclonal gammopathy–associated neuropathy, and, occasionally, idiopathic neuropathy, mononeuritis multiplex, radiculopathy, and plexopathy.2,–,4 In MMN, the prevalence of anti-GM1 antibodies ranges widely from 20% to 85%,2,–,6 in part because there is no consensus on the most reproducible assay for this antibody, prompting different investigators to use different ELISA techniques. The prevalence of anti-GM2 antibodies is less well-studied but is generally considerably lower than that of anti-GM1, and many of those patients with MMN having anti-GM2 antibodies also carry anti-GM1.3,7 Anti-GM2 antibodies are found in other neuromuscular disorders as well, including MND, …