Prof. Masaru Kuriyama M.D., Ph.D.

Name:

Masaru　KURIYAMA

Title:

Professor and Chairman

Date of birth:

December 24, 1947

Field:

Neurology,　Internal Medicine

Membership:

Japanese Society of Internal Medicine, Japanese Society of Neurology, Japanese Society of Neurological Therapeutics, etc.

Interests:

Music, Reading of history books

Research Outline:

We have been studying neuro-immunology of neurological diseases, especially in the identification of autoantibodies and their epitopes of antigens in the immunological pathological mechanism. Recently, we found the autoantibodies and their epitope in Hashimoto’s encephalopathy associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. In a proteomic analysis, they proved to recognize α-enolase. We further searched the epitope region inα-enolase using different regions of recombinant proteins expressed in cultured human cells. The amino terminal region was recognized by autoantibodies from a much higher proportion of patients with Hashimoto’s encephalopathy. Neither the carboxyl terminal nor the mid-region of α- enolase showed specificity for Hashimoto’s encephalopathy. The autoantibodies against the amino-terminal of α- enolase are emphasized as useful serological diagnostic markers of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy. We recognized other few autoantibodies reactive to the sera of patients with Hashimoto’s encephalopathy, and further have been studying to identify the epitopes of antigens. Furthermore, we will expand the studies using the proteomic analysis to disclose the pathological mechanism in other neuro- immunological disorders.

Message:

We have been studying not only immunological disorders, but also basic researches of metabolic disorders including mitochondrial diseases or degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease, and clinical researches of cerebral vascular diseases and Parkinson disease.