There is a new ray of hope for a rare type of encephalitis. Researchers found a new encephalitis treatment regimen for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. The said treatment recorded significant progress to patients even those who previously did not respond to other types of treatments.
Encephalitis a sudden inflammation of the brain. Its symptoms include fever, drowsiness fatigue and headache which further leads to seizures, hallucinations, tremors, memory problems and even stroke. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is an acute, rare form encephalitis. It is considered more fatal but there is also higher chance of recovery through proper treatment.
In a study published in the journal, Neurology, researchers treated five patients with severe anti-NMDAR encephalitis were treated with bortezomib aside from standard treatment. Bortezomib is a proteasome inhibitor which has previously been used in treating patients with plasmacytoma, a type of blood cancer. Proteasomes are known for regulating cell growth
The doctors treated the five patients with 1-6 cycles of 1.3 mg/m2 bortezomib. These patients are those with who had resistance or had delayed response to standard treatment which includes immunosuppressive and B-cell-depleting drugs. They are also in artificial ventilation on intensive care units.
Results revealed that the said encephalitis treatment was successful. The patients showed clinical improvement or disease remission. The researchers added that the treatment regimen of adding bortezomib to the standard multimodal immunosuppressive treatment regimen was deemed safe.
"'Bortezomib is capable of treating the causes of the disease by eliminating plasma cells. This makes it a valuable new treatment option in cases of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis that have so far proven resistant to treatment," Franziska Scheibe, lead author of the study said on a press release by Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Researchers suggests future studies to focus on developing a method to predict if a patient will develop severe form of the disease to initiate encephalitis treatment earlier.
