The cascade to pathogenicity in autoantibody-mediated CNS diseases: triggers, immune activation and neuroglial dysfunction

Journal article

The discovery of pathogenic neuroglial-surface directed autoantibodies (NGSAbs) has fundamentally transformed clinical neurology, by enabling molecular-level diagnoses in potentially treatable, yet previously unrecognised, diseases. Annual descriptions of novel CNStargeting antibodies create a continuous stream of new conditions in which to evaluate distinct phenotypes, specific tumour associations and immunotherapy responses. Alongside this clinical growth, increasing basic knowledge has highlighted origins and mechanisms underlying disease causation, most comprehensively interrogated in the well-established autoantibody-mediated conditions of autoimmune encephalitis (AE), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD). The corresponding most common ‘big six’ autoantigens are LGI1, the NMDA receptor, CASPR2, IgLON5, in forms of AE, AQP4 and MOG. Each of these autoantigens associates with a homogenous set of basic clinical features, across age, sex, tumour associations and ethnicities, coupled with partly distinctive profiles of triggers and predispositions, paradigms of immune tolerance escape in the periphery, how cells and autoantibodies gain access to the CNS and discrete mechanisms by which the CNS autoantibodies induce neuroglial dysfunction. These observations lead us to reconstruct a proposed chronological series of events as the “cascade to pathogenicity”, which together culminate in a rare CNS disease. By extension, we hypothesize elucidating the underlying biology of each condition will present differing precision medicine approaches to optimize patient care. Despite distinctions, there are also clinical and biological overlaps between these diseases, collectively creating opportunities to compare and contrast their individual features. Here, in each condition, we review current knowledge regarding the similarities and differences between the triggering events, underlying immunological processes and pathogenic mechanisms of autoantibodies. In some instances, we identify scientific clues which drive hypothetical models of pathogenesis and, for others, highlight striking observations which aim to generate hypothesisdriven next steps. Our aim is to construct disease models across the major autoantibody-mediated CNS diseases to highlight distinct components of cascades to pathogenicity which may offer targeted therapeutic approaches to improve patient outcomes, and identify key areas and questions for future research.

Authors: Montini, F; Wing, E; Herman, M; Pittock, SJ; Lopez, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Brain
• Article number: awag158
• Publication date: 2026-05-04
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-14
• DOI: 10.1093/brain/awag158
• EISSN: 1460-2156
• ISSN: 0006-8950
• Language: English
• Keywords: autoimmune; encephalitis; neuromyelitis optica; MOGAD; autoantibodies