Betty Diamond, MD

Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
North Shore-LIJ Health System

2001 Central Nervous System

Why do some people with lupus develop such devastating memory loss, confusion, and other cognitive, neurologic, and behavioral difficulties?

Dr. Diamond had a novel hypothesis: perhaps certain stress hormones allow toxic antibodies to penetrate the brain in lupus and destroy nerve cells there.

Over the course of her LRI-funded research, Dr. Diamond found that certain auto-antibodies to DNA can cross-react with a receptor on neurons, and that the antibodies can kill the neurons, leading to cognitive and other impairments. Her findings have been validated by independent groups around the world.

The breakthroughs have had a significant impact in the field, and Dr. Diamond has presented her findings at numerous national and international conferences. In 2005, she was awarded a major NIH program grant to continue the research.

A lack of established methods to investigate neurological changes in people with lupus, however, has prevented Dr. Diamond from investigating clinical interventions.  In research funded by the Dana Foundation she will evaluate MRI brain-scanning as a tool to assess clinical outcomes in lupus patients.  Following this study, it may be possible to initiate clinical trials in lupus patients with cognitive problems using drugs that are already approved to treat other neurodegenerative diseases.

Today over 15 researchers are building upon the area of work that the LRI initiated in its grant to Dr. Diamond nearly a decade ago.

Select publications:

Cognition and immunity; antibody impairs memory. Immunity. 2004 Aug;21(2):179-88.  Kowal C, DeGiorgio LA, Nakaoka T, Hetherington H, Huerta PT, Diamond B, Volpe BT.

Immunity and behavior: antibodies alter emotion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jan 17;103(3):678-83.  Huerta PT, Kowal C, DeGiorgio LA, Volpe BT, Diamond B.

Neuropsychiatric disturbances in SLE are associated with antibodies against NMDA receptors. Eur J Neurol. 2005 May;12(5):392-8. Omdal R, Brokstad K, Waterloo K, Koldingsnes W, Jonsson R, Mellgren SI.

Autoantibodies to a NR2A peptide of the glutamate/NMDA receptor in sera of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Ann Rheum Dis. 2005 Aug;64(8):1210-3. Husebye ES, Sthoeger ZM, Dayan M, Zinger H, Elbirt D, Levite M, Mozes E.

Ongoing funding

Dr. Diamond won a $6.5 million program grant from the NIH to build on more strategies for dealing with this devastating lupus-related development.

Rev. July 2010

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