Active clinical trials for "Encephalitis"

The Danish Study Group of Infections of the Brain is a collaboration between all departments of infectious diseases in Denmark. The investigators aim to monitor epidemiological trends in central nervous system (CNS) infections by a prospective registration of clinical characteristics and outcome of all adult (>17 years of age) patients with community-acquired CNS infections diagnosed and/or treated at departments of infectious diseases in Denmark since 1st of January 2015.

This study is to evaluate the seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies against Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus in children aged 6 years who were previously administered with 5 different immunization strategies by JE attenuated live vaccine (JEV-L) or/and inactivated vaccine (JEV-I). The secondary objective is to evaluate the immunogenicity of the booster dose of JEV-I at 6 years old for those previously immunized with 3 doses of JEV-I or those sequential administered with 1 dose of JEV-L and another dose of JEV-I.

Aim: Investigate whether patients undergoing specialist rehabilitation after complex neurological injury show different functional outcomes if music therapy is included in their rehabilitation program compared to usual care. Background: Patients with complex needs following a brain, spinal cord, and/or peripheral nerve injury often require a period of specialist neurorehabilitation. This involves multiple therapy disciplines, led by a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, Neurology, or Neuropsychiatry. Although music therapy is suggested to enhance neuroplasticity and recovery in patients with brain injury, it is not routinely commissioned in clinical care due to a lack of supportive evidence. Hypothesis: Patients undergoing music therapy in addition to complex specialist rehabilitation show better functional outcomes compared to usual care. Number of participants: 75, aged 16-80 years. Methods: Patients undergo baseline assessments and are randomised to MUSIC or CONTROL Therapy. Both arms receive 1-3 additional therapy sessions per week, matched for duration and number, total 15 hours. After approximately 10-weeks intervention, assessments are repeated. All participants then have access to music therapy until they are discharged from Neurorehabilitation Unit (NRU), with additional qualitative data collection using semi-structured interviews, field notes, staff reports, staff stress surveys, and broader ecological observations. Duration for Participants: From consent to discharge from NRU. Primary Outcome: Change in Functional Independence Measure+Functional Assessment Measure (FIM+FAM), Northwick Park Dependency Scale (NWPDS), and Barthel Activities of Daily Living pre and post 15 hours intervention. Secondary Outcome: Change in quality of life (Flourishing Scale), psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Depression Intensity Scale Circles), social interaction (Sickness Impact Profile Social Interaction Subscale), well-being (WHO Well-Being Index), and communication (Communication Outcomes After Stroke Scale), pre and post 15 hours intervention. Mean difference in well-being (WHO Well-Being Index) throughout the intervention period between music therapy and control therapy groups. Mean difference in post-intervention pain and mood visual analogue scores between music therapy and control therapy groups.

Iron deficiency (ID) anaemia (IDA) is a global public health problem, with the highest prevalence in Africa and in South-East Asia. While immunization programs have achieved high global coverage, vaccines often underperform in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The cause remains uncertain, but undernutrition, including ID, likely plays a role. Our recent in vitro and in vivo studies have shown the importance of iron status in adaptive immunity and vaccine response. Hypoferremia blunted T cell, B cell, and neutralizing antibody responses to influenza virus infection in mice, allowing the virus to persist. Iron deficient anaemic Kenyan women receiving intravenous iron at time of vaccination had a better immune response to the first dose of the ChAdOx Coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) vaccine and yellow fever vaccine. Japanese encephalitis and typhoid fever are endemic in Thailand. Vaccines are available but show variable efficacy. Whether ID impairs adult vaccine response to the live attenuated Japanese encephalitis (JE) and the Typhoid Vi polysaccharide (Vi-PS) vaccine and whether iron repletion via iron fortification improves vaccine response is uncertain. The objective of this study is to assess whether IDA in Thai women impairs immune response to the JE and the Typhoid Vi-PS vaccine and whether fortification iron improves their response. In this double-blind randomized controlled trial, IDA women will be assigned to two study groups: group 1 (fortification group) will receive iron-fortified biscuits (15mg iron as ferrous fumarate) for 56 days; group 2 (control group) will receive non-fortified biscuits for 56 days. All women will receive live attenuated JE and Typhoid Vi-PS vaccine on study day 28. Vaccine response will be measured 28 days after vaccination (on day 56) in both groups.

Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) can be prevented by vaccine. Vaccine failure, defined as a case of TBE regardless of previous vaccination, has been described and seems to be more predominant with increasing age, suggesting a less effective immune response following with increasing age. In fact previous studies has shown a reduced antibody response in elderly individuals compared to younger when vaccinated against TBE. As a result, in Sweden, an extra vaccine dose has been recommended during the primary vaccine schedule to individuals > 50 years of age. This alternative vaccine schedule has not been tested. The investigator aim to test if an extra vaccine dose in the primary vaccine schedule for those > 50 years of age improves the immune response and offers a corresponding immunity to younger individuals following TBE vaccination.

Previously, scholars called the seizures secondary to autoimmune encephalitis（AE） "autoimmune related epilepsy", but the seizures secondary to AE are usually controlled after the improvement of encephalitis, which does not meet the "persistent" characteristics of epilepsy. Only a subset of patients with seizures lasting several years require long-term Antiseizure medications (ASM). In 2020, the International Coalition against Epilepsy classified it as "acute symptomatic seizure secondary to AE". ASSAE) and autoimmune-associated epilepsy (AAE) . The former is caused by AE, which has clinical manifestations of AE at the same time as epileptic seizures at the beginning or recurrence. The proportion and type of epileptic seizures are different due to different causes, and epileptic seizures are also controlled after the disease is controlled. The latter is that after adequate immunotherapy, there are still persistent seizures, and there is no obvious evidence of inflammatory activity, this type of patient application ASM and immunotherapy is not effective. Secondly, with the deepening of AE research, gradually found that some AAE can still be ASMs cure, such as carbamazepine, ocasepine, lakaosamine. On the one hand, it works by influencing cellular and humoral immune responses. On the other hand, effectiveness of sodium channel blockers in focal epilepsy. Lacosamide is a slow sodium channel blocker that belongs to the third generation of ASM. It has a short half-life and can be quickly increased to an effective dose with a low incidence of adverse reactions. Therefore, the investigators chose to add oral antiepileptic therapy with lacosamide in AAE populations to observe efficacy and safety.

Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) are characterized by subacute onset of memory deficits, altered mental status or psychiatric symptoms, frequently associated with seizures, inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid and in cases with prominent limbic involvement, typical magnetic resonance imaging. Several autoantibodies (Abs) may be detected in AE, although its detection is not mandatory to establish a diagnosis. These Abs mainly recognize different synaptic and cell-surface proteins in the central nervous system, and are thought to be pathogenic as they alter the normal location or function of its antigens. Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNS) are immune-mediated, remote complications of cancer. The clinical presentation is highly diverse, from central nervous system disorders (limbic encephalitis, cerebellar ataxia) to peripheral neuropathies and neuromuscular junction diseases. Two different kinds of Abs are associated with PNS: a first group known as onconeural Abs, which recognize intracellular antigens and are thought not to be pathogenic; and a second one whose targeted synaptic and cell-surface antigens shared with some non-paraneoplastic AE. The primary trigger of the immune response is unknown for most of AE. In addition to acquired susceptibility such as herpes simplex encephalitis, genetic predisposition may also be important in the pathogenesis of AE. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) is the genetic factor most frequently associated with autoimmune diseases, due to its genetic complexity and key role in the adaptive immune response. Others and we already described the HLA haplotypes associated with three types different of AE: anti-leucine-rich glioma inactivated 1 (LGI1), anti-contactin-associated protein-like 2 (CASPR2), and anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD). Nevertheless, the genetic predisposition of many other AE has not been investigated yet. Cancer is considered as the trigger of the immune response that lead to PNS development, as the neural antigens recognized by the onconeural Abs are also expressed by tumor cells. Nevertheless, it is still unknown why some patients develop PNS and others do not, even if they present the same histological type of tumor, suggesting that some particular, maybe genetic, characteristics of the patients may play a role in this susceptibility. Furthermore, there is already evidence that, for those neurological diseases that may appear either as PNS or as non-paraneoplastic autoimmune disorder (i.e. Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome), HLA profiles are not the same.

We enroll pediatric patients who were diagnosed COVID-19 for main observation target. We will perform brain MRI and neuropsychiatric evaluation 4-6 months after COVID-19 diagnosed. We also enroll healthy age- and gender-matched participant for cross-over comparison. We will perform same evaluation process one year later for longitudinal evaluation

Autoimmune encephalitis is brain inflammation caused by the immune system mistakenly reacting against proteins in the brain. The commonest form is called NMDAR-antibody encephalitis (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibody encephalitis), a rare condition which mainly affects children and young people and causes difficulties in memory, thinking and mental health which can have significant long-term impacts on education, employment and quality of life. In this project we will use advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure changes in the structure, function and chemistry of the brains of children and young people who are in early recovery from NMDAR-antibody encephalitis and other forms of immune-mediated encephalitis. We will investigate if MRI measurements in patients differ from those in healthy people, and if they can help predict patient outcome one year later, assessed by tests of memory, thinking, mental health and functioning in daily life.

The goal of this retrospective observational study is to compare brain fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) of patients with autoimmune encephalitis, normal controls and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The main question it aims to answer is: •is there a specific pattern of brain metabolism in patients with autoimmune encephalitis Participants data and images will be retrospectively collected from hospital records, and FDG-PET images will be analyzed by means of statistical parametric mapping (SPM). Controls will be selected from validated public databases.