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 BETPSY Project

Biomarkers in autoimmune EncephaliTis and      

Paraneoplastic neurological SYndromes

Numerous neurological disorders affecting the central and peripheral nervous system can be attributed to the immune system through multiple effector mechanisms. However, current treatments could be drastically improved by faster and more accurate diagnosis.

The BETPSY project will benefit to patients with rare neuroimmune syndroms such as Autoimmune Encephalitis (AE) and Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes (PNS) leading to a better and early diagnosis, as well as treatment improvement.

This project is coordinated by Professor Jérôme Honnorat, PU-PH, head of the neuro-oncology department at the Neurological hospital of Lyon and also director of the French rare disease reference center “paraneoplastic neurological syndrome and autoimmune encephalitis” since 2007.

BETPSY project has been awarded 7.3 million euros by the "Programme d'Investissement d'avenir (PIA)", and is based on a collaboration between 5 academic research teams (UCBL, HCL, ICM, CLB and INSERM), and 1 private company Euroimmun, which is specialized in the development of diagnostic kits to identify autoantibodies. The team of J. Honnorat in the MeLiS (Inserm U1314-CNRS/UCBL UMR5284) called “SynatAc” is totally dedicated to the study of the pathophysiological role of autoantibodies associated to AE and PNS. This team works for many years with Partners from CLB and ICM, to understand the role of tumor antigens in the immune reactions of PNS. The team from INSERM published a first animal model of PNS that will be very useful to decipher the role of T and B cells in PNS.