Antiamphiphysin Antibodies Are Associated With Various Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes and Tumors

Abstract
SEVERAL TYPES of autoantibodies have been identified in patients with paraneoplastic neurological syndromes; these include antiamphiphysin antibodies that recognize a 128-kd protein in Western blots of rat and human brain subsequently shown to be the nerve terminal protein amphiphysin.1,2 Antiamphiphysin antibodies were first reported in women with breast cancer and stiff-man syndrome,1 but studies indicate that they also occur in patients with other tumors and neurological disorders.3,4 Using a series of 5 patients, we have now extended the spectrum of neurological syndromes and tumors that are associated with antiamphiphysin antibodies and suggest that these antibodies are not specific for one type of neurological syndrome and one type of cancer. Also, we found that other neural and nonneural antibodies were present in several patients with antiamphiphysin antibodies, thus making it difficult to detect such antibodies by immunohistochemical analysis alone.