- Bartley, Christopher M;
- Ngo, Thomas T;
- Cadwell, Cathryn R;
- Harroud, Adil;
- Schubert, Ryan D;
- Alvarenga, Bonny D;
- Hawes, Isobel A;
- Zorn, Kelsey C;
- Hunyh, Trung;
- Teliska, Lindsay H;
- Kung, Andrew F;
- Shah, Shailee;
- Gelfand, Jeffrey M;
- Chow, Felicia C;
- Rasband, Matthew N;
- Dubey, Divyanshu;
- Pittock, Sean J;
- DeRisi, Joseph L;
- Wilson, Michael R;
- Pleasure, Samuel J
Neuroinvasive infection is the most common cause of meningoencephalitis in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but autoimmune etiologies have been reported. We present the case of a 51-year-old man living with HIV infection with steroid-responsive meningoencephalitis whose comprehensive pathogen testing was non-diagnostic. Subsequent tissue-based immunofluorescence with acute-phase cerebrospinal fluid revealed anti-neural antibodies localizing to the axon initial segment (AIS), the node of Ranvier (NoR), and the subpial space. Phage display immunoprecipitation sequencing identified ankyrinG (AnkG) as the leading candidate autoantigen. A synthetic blocking peptide encoding the PhIP-Seq-identified AnkG epitope neutralized CSF IgG binding to the AIS and NoR, thereby confirming a monoepitopic AnkG antibody response. However, subpial immunostaining persisted, indicating the presence of additional autoantibodies. Review of archival tissue-based staining identified candidate AnkG autoantibodies in a 60-year-old woman with metastatic ovarian cancer and seizures that were subsequently validated by cell-based assay. AnkG antibodies were not detected by tissue-based assay and/or PhIP-Seq in control CSF (N = 39), HIV CSF (N = 79), or other suspected and confirmed neuroinflammatory CSF cases (N = 1,236). Therefore, AnkG autoantibodies in CSF are rare but extend the catalog of AIS and NoR autoantibodies associated with neurological autoimmunity.