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Over recent decades, the significance of autoantibodies has been increasingly recognized in neurological diseases. Breakthroughs, such as the identification of pathogenic autoantibodies targeting aquaporin-4 in central nervous system demyelinating disorders and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in autoimmune encephalitis, have revolutionized both the discovery and mechanistic investigation of autoantibodies in neurological diseases. [...]

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is an autosomal dominantly inherited adult-onset disease. We aimed to describe longitudinal changes in clinical and biological findings and to identify predictors for clinical progression.We used data from participants enrolled in the ESMI cohort collected between Nov 09, 2016 and July 18, 2023. [...]

Background and objectivesThere is limited study data on both therapeutic plasma exchange (PE) and immunoadsorption (IA) in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), mostly based on case series in patients in the early stages of the disease.The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the efficacy and tolerability of the two therapy procedures in a larger sample with a longer duration of disease and immunomodulatory pre-treatment.MethodsIn this retrospective study from 5 centers in Germany, register data on the efficacy, safety and tolerability of therapy with IA or PE in patients with CIDP were examined. Treatment response was assessed using neurological scores (INCAT and Hughes Score), duration of hospital stay, and subjective assessment by examiners and patients. [...]

Microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) mutations cause frontotemporal dementia (FTD), characterised by behavioural, language, and motor impairments due to brain connectivity disruptions. We investigated structural and functional connectivity in 86 mutation carriers and 272 controls to map connectivity changes at different disease stages.The CDR Dementia Staging Instrument plus National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) Behaviour and Language domains (CDR plus NACC FTLD) stratified carriers into three groups: asymptomatic, prodromal, and symptomatic. [...]

Roughly one in five adults who meet criteria for long covid present with objective or subjective cognitive dysfunction or elevated symptoms of depression or anxiety lasting ≥12 weeks from an acute covid illness. These neuropsychiatric sequelae have considerable functional consequences at the level of the individual, society, and the broader economy. [...]

First stable release of AAanalysis (Amino Acid analysis), a Python framework for interpretable sequence-based protein prediction. This version includes the foundational algorithms used in the publication 'Charting γ-secretase substrates by explainable AI' (Breimann & Kamp et al., Nature Communications, 2025): CPP (Comparative Physicochemical Profiling), a feature engineering method that identifies the most distinctive physicochemical properties between two sets of protein sequences, and dPULearn, a deterministic positive-unlabeled (PU) learning algorithm enabling robust classification from imbalanced and small datasets..

Despite progress in the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia risk estimation, little is known about its impact at the individual and societal levels.Introducing the explorative tri-national PreTAD project (The Predictive Turn in Alzheimer's Disease: Ethical, Clinical, Linguistic and Legal Aspects), which aims to (1) learn about attitudes, needs, and perspectives on AD dementia risk estimation of the general population and cognitively unimpaired individuals with and without contact to memory clinics, (2) identify anticipated impacts of AD dementia risk estimation and (3) discuss the implications of the paradigm shift in medicine at individual and societal levels from an ethical, linguistic and legal perspective.Different approaches are used: (1) an assessment of a population without experience with dementia, (2) an assessment in memory clinics, and (3) an online survey of the general population. Participants include cognitively healthy adults (n=2760), first-degree relatives of dementia patients (n=150), and participants with existing (n=150) and newly diagnosed (n=90) subjective cognitive decline (SCD) from Germany, Switzerland, and Spain.As part of the PreTAD project, new questionnaires are developed that (1) collect attitudes, needs, and perspectives on AD dementia risk estimation and (2) assess anticipated impacts of dementia risk estimation using hypothetical blood-based biomarker dementia risk scenarios.The PreTAD study combines an interdisciplinary approach to develop a framework for predictive medicine in the preclinical stages of AD and supports improving communication of biomarker-based dementia risk estimation in clinical practice. [...]

Monoclonal anti-amyloid therapies are now accessible, but how these treatments influence changes within the brain is still not clear. We investigated overall and regional change in amyloid removal, glucose metabolism, and atrophy in trial participants with dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease (DIAD).In the DIAN-TU-001 trial, 92 carriers received gantenerumab or placebo and underwent serial neuroimaging assessments including [11C]-Pittsburgh compound-B (PiB) positron emission tomography (PET), [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) PET, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Gantenerumab significantly reduced PiB-PET uptake overall and in most regions and showed no changes in FDG-PET or MRI measures. [...]

We investigated whether older adults with subjective memory complaints (SMC) and amyloid-β accumulation may show clinical progression over 2 years, as measured by resting-state electroencephalographic (rsEEG), structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI), and cognitive variables, depending on educational attainment.We analyzed these markers in 84 SMC participants from INSIGHT-Pre-AD study, grouped by amyloid-β deposition (18F-florbetapir positron emission tomography) and educational attainment.In amyloid-negative individuals, higher educational attainment was linked to greater posterior rsEEG alpha activity, possibly reflecting neuroprotective effects. Conversely, amyloid-positive individuals with higher educational attainment showed reduced posterior rsEEG alpha rhythms and lower parietal cortical thickness, potentially indicating compensatory mechanisms counteracting early amyloidosis and neurodegeneration. [...]

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. This leads to hallmark motor features that include bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability, alongside with a range of non-motor symptoms including sleep disturbances, mood disorders, and cognitive decline. [...]