Christian Vedeler
Christian Vedeler is a neurologist and professor at the Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital and Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Norway. He is the leader of the Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes Group and has a special interest in autoimmunity and immune-mediated neurodegeneration.
Hovedinnhold
Paraneoplastic syndromes of the nervous system are a group of rare disorders that develop in some people who have cancer. PNS occur when cancer-fighting agents of the immune system also attack parts of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves or muscle and cause neurodegeneration. The researchers are interested in the most common type of PNS; Paraneoplastic Cerebellar Degeneration (PCD).
PCD is an autoimmune model for neurodegeneration and associated with onconeuronal Yo autoantibodies which are present both in serum and cerebrospinal fluid and react with both cancer cells and Purkinje neurons of the cerebellum. In ovarian or breast cancer patients Yo autoantibodies can cause neuronal dysfunction and Purkinje neuron death by binding to cerebellar degeneration-related antigens CDR2 and CDR2Like. Today’s therapy is to remove the tumor to prevent further neuronal damage but there is no treatment available to compensate the induced neurodegeneration.
The groups aim is to develop a neuroprotective therapy by investigating the molecular mechanisms inducing neurodegeneration. In the past years we developed two artificial PCD ex-vivo systems where we can visualize biochemical cascades before and after Yo autoantibody intake in the targeted Purkinje neurons of the cerebellum.