Autoantibodies, immune complexes, and behavioral disorders: Neuropsychiatric involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus

There is a great deal of interest in immune mediation of neurobehavioral disorders. In this paper we emphasize the role that immune complexes and autoantibodies are likely to play in interfering with normal central nervous system functioning. The evidence indicates that immune complexes can affect behavior, probably via C3a and C5a, and alter blood–brain barrier permeability. The evidence also indicates that brain‐reactive autoantibodies are likely to affect behavior. There is, however, a diversity of these autoantibodies which will have to be better characterized in order to truly understand their role in autoimmunemediated central nervous system disease.