CSF plasma cell expansion in LGI1-/CASPR2-autoimmune encephalitis is associated with loss of regulatory MAIT cells

Abstract

Anti-Leucine-rich glioma inactivated-1 (LGI1) and anti-contactin-associated-protein-2 (CASPR2) associated autoimmune encephalitis (AIE) variants are characterized by directly pathogenic autoantibodies present in serum and CSF. The dynamics and drivers of intrathecal and systemic autoantibody production are incompletely understood. We aimed to elucidate the immunologic basis of the LGI1-/CASPR2-associated AIE variants by performing multi-omic profiling of CSF/blood in untreated patients. We validated findings by flow cytometry in independent cohorts and confirmed functionality using rodent immunization. We identified clonal IgG2 and IgG4 plasma cell expansion and affinity maturation in the CSF together with clonally restricted, activated, antigen-experienced CD8 and CD4 T cells as a hallmark of these encephalitis variants. Using recombinant cloning, we confirmed that expanded CSF plasma cell clones almost exclusively bound the respective neuronal autoantigen. In addition, we found a loss of regulatory mucosa-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells and gamma delta T cells in the CSF and - to a lesser degree - in blood. We validated the functional role of these invariant T cells using a novel murine active immunization paradigm using both autoantigens: MAIT cells suppressed systemic formation of LGI1 and CASPR2-specific anti-neuronal antibodies. We propose that loss of systemic and intrathecal regulatory mechanisms mediated by innate-like T cells promote plasma cell expansion and autoantibody production as a shared mechanism in AIE. One sentence summaryCerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood (PB) single cell transcriptomics of patients with untreated anti-LGI1 and anti-CASPR2 autoimmune encephalitis demonstrated CSF specific expansion of autoantigen-specific plasma cell clones and systemic loss of invariant mucosa-associated T-cells (MAIT).