Neuronal antinuclear antibodies in a patient with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome and small-cell lung carcinoma.

A patient with small-cell lung carcinoma and the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome had circulating neuronal antinuclear antibodies. Serum stained the nuclei of all neurons in sections of human brain and identified a closely spaced group of 33-39 kDa proteins in immunoblots of human neuronal nuclei. These autoantibodies are indistinguishable from those recently identified in patients with paraneoplastic subacute sensory neuronopathy.