Vincent P. Calabrese

Vigilance performance in Parkinson's disease and depression

Patients with Parkinsons disease (PD), patients with Major Depression (MD) and normal control (NC) subjects were administered a continuous performance test (CPT) under neutral and incentive conditions. Patients made more errors than NC subjects with the MD group making a disproportionately large number of omission errors and the PD group tending to make commission errors. Incentive reduced errors across groups. Reaction times were slowest in the MD group. The pattern of findings in patients with MD is consistent with a failure of effort-demanding cognitive processes. In contrast, nondemented patients with PD appeared to have deficiencies in executive control. A previously reported paradoxical effect of incentive on recognition memory performance in depressed patients did not generalize to a vigilance task.

Cerebrospinal fluid lactate levels and prognosis in status epilepticus.

Summary: Despite recent advances in the treatment of status epilepticus (SE), the mortality and morbidity associated with this condition remains high. Although the reasons for this excessive mortality are not known, several factors are suspected, including cerebral ischemia, cardiovascular collapse, toxic stimulation by neurotransmitters and hormones, or toxic products of intermediary metabolism. Cerebral lactic acidosis can cause cortical injury and has been shown to occur with seizures in experimental animals and in a limited number of human studies. We determined cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma lactate in 29 patients with generalized SE of diverse etiology. CSF was obtained within 12 h of termination of clinical seizure activity. The mean CSF lactate for all SE patients was elevated (3.74 ± 0.31 mM) as compared with that of normal controls (1.60 ± 0.10 mM) from non‐neurologic patients undergoing spinal anesthesia. In patients who died or had a poor neurologic recovery, CSF lactate level was 5.36 ± 0.58 mM (9 patients), whereas in 20 patients who showed good recovery CSF lactate level was 3.01 ± 0.22 mM (p < 0.005). The results demonstrate that SE causes a significant increase in CSF lactate and suggest that the magnitude of lactate elevation may serve as a predictive indicator of morbidity and mortality.

Isolation and partial characterization of human CNS axolemma-enriched fractions

WI: H A M previously described how axolemma-enriched fractions can be isolated from bovine and rat CNS via a purified preparation of myelinated axons (DEVRIES. 1976; DIVRILS uI.. 1978). In this report an improved procedure is described which is used to isolate the analogous fractions from human CNS white matter and the morphology, enzymatic and protein profile of the fractions are reported. This isolation procedure can be applied to any mammalian CNS white matter specimen to yield axolemma-enriched fractions of defined purity and in quantities sufficient for biochemical characterization.

Serum IgG antibody to herpes viruses in schizophrenia

Immunoglobulin measurements have provided indirect evidence to suggest that viruses may play an etiologic role in schizophrenia. The authors review the conflicting studies and report their own measurements of serum antibody absorbance to five viral antigens using an ELISA technique in 38 schizophrenic patients and 22 matched controls. For herpes simplex virus, 12 subjects (32%) had antibody levels more than 2 SD above the control mean.

Antibody to human and simian retrovirus, HTLV-I, HTLV-II, HIV, STLV-III, and SRV-I not increased in patients with multiple sclerosis.

We have tested sera from patients with multiple sclerosis, matched controls, and those with other neurological diseases, as well as sera from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and controls and patients with tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) and controls for antibody to human T‐lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV‐I), HTLV‐II, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), simian T‐lymphotropic virus type III, or simian retrovirus type I by immunofluorescent activity test, and for HTLV‐I and HIV by the ELISA method. Sera from patients with multiple sclerosis and matched controls, and from patients with optic neuritis and Parkinsons or other neuromuscular diseases did not have antibody to any of the retroviruses tested. Specimens from TSP patients and some controls contained HTLV‐I antibody. We conclude from our study that only TSP patients had serological evidence of infection with one of the retroviruses studied.

Serologic studies of MS patients, controls, and patients with other neurologic diseases Antibodies to HTLV‐I, II, III

We have studied the frequency of human retrovirus antibody (HTLV-I, II, III) in the serum and CSF of patients with MS, matched controls, and patients with optic neuritis, idiopathic and postencephalitic Parkinsons disease, neuropathies, polymyositis, ALS, and postpoliomyelitis. Except for the postpoliomyelitis samples, all samples were collected prior to 1980. Contrary to a previous published report, no significant levels of antibody to HTLV-I, II, or III were found in the MS patients or controls. No retrovirus antibody was detected in patients with the other neurologic diseases.

Characterization of an antiserum against an axolemma-enriched fraction

An antiserum was raised to rat central nervous system (CNS) axolemma-enriched fractions (AEF), which showed no cross-reactivity with myelin proteins or liver microsomes yet gave an endpoint titer of 1:51 200 to CNS AEF by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Immunochemical staining of electroblotted proteins from rat CNS and peripheral nervous system (PNS) AEFs separated by gel electrophoresis identified a major reactive band at 38.5 kD. CNS AEF also showed major immunoreactivity at 91 kD (+/- 3 kD) and a broad band from 110 kD to 130 kD. By immunoperoxidase staining the antiserum specifically recognized the axolemma of peripheral nerve and synaptic terminals in the CNS. The significance of the specificity is discussed with respect to anti-synaptosome antisera.

A micromethod for absorption of specific antibody using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)

A procedure for absorbing specific antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system (ELISA) has been developed. This is accomplished by serial absorption of the serum using less than 20 micrograms antigen. The sera can then be used in an ELISA system to test reactivity with other antigens. The system was tested by absorbing anti-myelin or anti-cerebroside antibodies and comparing these results with bulk absorption.

Serological Studies of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis, controls, and Patients with Other Neurological Diseases: Antibodies to HTLV-I, HTLV-II, HIV, and STLV-III

Retroviruses have been associated with neurological disease in man. Recently, Kaprowski et al. [1] reported that outbreaks of mutliple sclerosis (MS) in Key West, Florida, and in Sweden seem to be associated with increased antibody for human retroviruses. In addition, homology studies under nonstringent conditions using CSF cells derived from MS patients reacted with human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV)-I antigen. During the past 10 years more than ten different possible agents have been suggested as causes of MS [2]. These agents include a number of recognized viruses such as measles, canine distemper, scrapie agent, coronaviruses, and agents of unclear classification such as the MSAA (multiple sclerosis associated agent), bone marrow agent, and chimpanzee agent. We report here our studies of retrovirus antibody in a large number of sera and CSF collected from MS patients, matched controls, and patients with other neurological diseases (OND) prior to AIDS becoming a serious disease.