Patent ID: 8377645

Claim:
A method for the diagnosis of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes and/or for the early diagnosis of the formation of cancerous tumors, in which autoantibodies directed against a ULIP6 protein are demonstrated in a biological sample taken from an individual, the method comprising: contacting a biological sample taken from an individual with a ULIP6 polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence SEQ ID No. 2 or an epitopic fragment of said polypeptide comprising the sequence SEQ ID No. 4, optionally attached to a support, under conditions which allow the formation of specific immunocomplexes between said polypeptide and the autoantibodies possibly present in the biological sample, and detecting the specific immunocomplexes possibly formed; wherein if specific immunocomplexes are formed, there is a diagnosis of paraneoplastic neurological syndrome and/or formation of cancerous tumors; wherein the paraneoplastic neurological syndrome manifests itself by encephalomyelitis, Denny-Brown sensory neuropathy, cerebella atrophy, limbic encephalitis or opsoclonus; and wherein the tumor is a peripheral tumor selected from the group consisting of small-cell lung cancer, thymona, breast cancer and ovarian cancer or a primary brain tumor of glial origin.