Internal medicine

Pediatrics

Disease

Weakness

Bacteria

Biology

Surgery

Intensive care medicine

Immunology

Overlap syndrome

Campylobacter jejuni

Guillain-Barre syndrome

Genetics

Medicine

The Lancet

Guillain-Barré syndrome is the most common cause of acute flaccid paralysis worldwide. Most patients present with an antecedent illness, most commonly upper respiratory tract infection, before the onset of progressive motor weakness. Several microorganisms have been associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome, most notably Campylobacter jejuni, Zika virus, and in 2020, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. In C jejuni-related Guillain-Barré syndrome, there is good evidence to support an autoantibody-mediated immune process that is triggered by molecular mimicry between structural components of peripheral nerves and the microorganism.

Guillain-Barré syndrome