In 2011, the Berlin Zoo suffered a tragic loss when the beloved polar bear Knut international was a crisis unexpected and drowned. The autopsy revealed that the swelling in the brain of Knut, known as encephalitis, caused the seizure. But the exact cause of the swelling remained mysterious. Today in Scientific Reports , researchers announced the guilty: Knut suffered from anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, an autoimmune disease thought to exist in humans. In autoimmune diseases, the individual's immune system produces false defense agents called antibodies that attack its own tissues. In the case of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, antibodies attack a particular protein (NMDA receptors) on cells in the brain and erroneous attacks lead to swelling, and Knut, an unexpected crisis. When a neurologist near Berlin Knut read the autopsy report, he found symptomatic striking parallels to his own patients who have suffered from anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. He teamed with those who originally investigated the death of Knut, and after performing a series of tests on tissue samples stored from the brain of the bear, the team fixed the diagnosis autoimmune. The discovery suggests that the NMDA receptor anti-encephalitis is more common in mammals than previously thought. Scientists hope that because the disease is treatable in humans, they will be able to diagnose and treat animals in captivity before he kills them.
Death of the beloved polar bear Knut, resolved
Death of the beloved polar bear Knut, resolved -
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