Tsymala, Irina
Nigritinou, Magdalini
Zeka, Bleranda
Schulz, Rouven
Niederschick, Felix
Matković, Mia
Bauer, Isabel J.
Szalay, Michael
Schanda, Kathrin
Lerch, Magdalena
Misu, Tatsuro
Fujihara, Kazuo
Bennett, Jeffrey L.
Dahle, Charlotte
Pache, Florence
Rommer, Paulus
Leutmezer, Fritz
Illes, Zsolt
Leite, Maria Isabel
Palace, Jacqueline
Scholze, Petra
Reindl, Markus
Lassmann, Hans
Bradl, Monika
Funding for this research was provided by:
Austrian Science Fund (P28476-B30, P32699B)
Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (2013-A283)
Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (BIGWIG-MS, BIGWIG-MS)
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Grants-in-aid, Grants-in-aid)
Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH-Charite Clinical Scientist Program)
Article History
Received: 11 February 2020
Accepted: 20 March 2020
First Online: 15 April 2020
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The experiments on Lewis rats were approved by the Ethics Commission of the Medical University Vienna and performed with the license of the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research (BMBWF-66.009/0241-WF/II/3b/2015; BMBWF-66.009/107-V/3b/2018).Plasmapheresates/serum samples from NMOSD patients were used by approval of the Regional and National Ethical Committee of Hungary (3893.316–12464/KK4/2010 and 42341–2/2013/EKU), of the Ethics Committee of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals (REC 10/0606/56), of the Regional and National Ethical Committee of Sweden (2013/153–31 Linköping), of the Ethics Committee of Tohoku University School of Medicine (No. 2007–327), of the Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Vienna (No. 1005/2014), and of the Ethics Committee of the Charite Universitaetsmedizin Berlin (EA1/041/14).
: Not applicable.
: IT, MN, BZ, RS, FN, MM, IB, MS, ML, PR, FL, FP, TM, CD, PS, JLB, HL and MB declare no conflict of interest. JP is partly funded by highly specialised services to run a national congenital myasthenia service and a neuromyelitis service. She has received support for scientific meetings and honorariums for advisory work from Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, Novartis, Teva, Chugai Pharma and Bayer Schering, Alexion, Roche, Genzyme, MedImmune, EuroImmun, MedDay, Abide ARGENX, UCB and Viela Bio and grants from Merck Serono, Novartis, Biogen Idec, Teva, Abide, MedImmune, Bayer Schering, Genzyme, Chugai and Alexion. She has received grants from the MS society, Guthie Jackson Foundation, NIHR, Oxford Health Services Research Committee, EDEN, MRC, GMSI, John Fell and Myaware for research studies. KF reports personal fees from Alexion, Asahi Kasei Medical, Bayer, Biogen, Chugai/Roche, Dainihon Sumitomo, Eisai, MedImmune/VielaBio, Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Novartis, Ono, Takeda and Teijin, during the conduct of the study; grants from Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Japan and Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor of Japan. ZI has received honoraria for clinical endpoint committees in clinical trials of NMOSD; has served on scientific advisory board, has received honoraria for lecturing, and has received support for congress participation from Biogen, Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck, Teva, Roche, and Novartis, respectively. MIL reported being involved in aquaporin 4 testing, and is partially supported by NHS England highly specialised commissioning group for neuromyelitis. MIL has received support for scientific meetings from Novartis and Biogen Idec and honorarium for lectures and advisory work from Biogen Idec, Viela Bio and Argenx. She has received research fellowships from NIHR, University of Oxford and Myaware. MR, KS declare that the University Hospital and Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria) receives payments for antibody assays (MOG, AQP4, and other autoantibodies) and for MOG and AQP4 antibody validation experiments organized by Euroimmun (Lübeck, Germany).