News
Teaching in the summer term 2020
07.04.2020
Because of the measures taken to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic teaching in the summer term cannot be carried out as usual. In this Moodle course you can find an overview of changes for all courses in the biochemistry bachelor and master studies courses. This overview will be continuously supplemented and updated.
22.02.2019
We congratulate Tobias Strasdeit on achieving his doctorate degree.
09.02.2018
Up to 20% of the population carry antibodies against glutamate receptors of the NMDA type independent of any disease, with prevalence increasing with age. In collaboration with the Clinical Neuroscience Group of Hannelore Ehrenreich at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, we have now shown a similar prevalence of antibodies against NMDA receptors in other mammals. Dogs, cats, rats and mice also displayed the age dependency found in most humans, whereas baboons and rhesus macaques in captivity did not. Based on this result and the observation that human migrants also show a weaker age dependency, we hypothesise that chronic stress triggers the antibody production.
When we immunised mice against NMDA receptors, they produced large amounts of antibodies. When the animals had a disrupted blood-brain barrier, they showed psychosis-like symptoms like the ones known to be caused by drug-induced NMDA receptor block. However, none of the animals had any signs of brain inflammation (encephalitis). This indicates that some of the symptoms observed in encephalitis patients carrying antibodies against NMDA receptors may indeed be caused by the antibodies, whereas the encephalitis itself has another cause.
Abstract. The complete article is openly accessible.