Anne H. Cross

Anne Cross (born c. February 27, 1956) is an American neurologist and neuroimmunologist and the Section Head of Neuroimmunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Cross holds the Manny and Rosalyn Rosenthal–Dr. John L. Trotter Endowed Chair in Neuroimmunology at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and co-directs the John L Trotter Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Cross is a leader in the field of neuroimmunology and was the first to discover the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) in animals and then in humans. Cross now develops novel imaging techniques to observe inflammation and demyelination in the central nervous systems of MS patients for diagnosis and disease management.

Early life and education Cross grew up in Mobile, Alabama. Cross pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. Cross completed her medical training in 1980 and then pursued a residency in neurology at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Cross completed her residency in 1984 and pursued further medical specialization through several fellowships. Cross first completed fellowship training in Neuroimmunology at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda Maryland.

Career and research In 1990, Cross became an assistant professor of Neurology and Pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She held this position for one year and was then recruited to Washington University in St. Louis where she became an associate professor of neurology with tenure. She now is the co-director of the John L. Trotter MS Center at Washington University School of Medicine as well as the Section Head of Neuroimmunology. In addition to her faculty and research roles, Cross sees about 2000 patients annually who suffer from multiple sclerosis. The lab currently focuses on developing novel imaging techniques to differentiate between different types of demyelinating and inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. Cross sought to settle the debate concerning the role of B cells in MS and showed, in 1999, that B cells in fact play a major role of the pathogenesis of the disease. She used rituximab, a monoclonal antibody that targets CD20, to deplete B cells and observed that depletion of B cells abrogated disease and reduced T cell infiltration of the central immune system. To determine what the optimal response to rituximab therapy is, Cross looked at the tissue biomarkers of patients with multiple sclerosis on rituximab therapy. She found that rituximab therapy led to decreased markers of inflammation and higher IgG and CXCL13 in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients when successful. She found that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was a useful tool for observing demyelination in patients and could serve as a tool to detect axon injury and guide therapies. An important breakthrough that Cross and her colleagues made recently was discovering that gradient echo MRI can be used to reliably assess cortical gray matter damage, a common finding in MS patients. With these novel imaging techniques, Cross has enabled the field with the ability to track disease course in human patients which will improve understanding of disease progress in a non-invasive way. They have previously found that calorie restriction abrogates EAE symptoms in animal models. The immunomodulatory effects of intermittent fasting suggest that it could pose as a potential therapy for MS. 2014 Faculty Achievement Award Washington University B Cells, T Cells and Inflammatory CSF Biomarkers in Primary Progressive MS and Relapsing MS in the OBOE (Ocrelizumab Biomarker Outcome Evaluation) Trial (1635). Amit Bar-Or, Jeffrey Bennett, H. Von Budingen, Robert Carruthers, Keith Edwards, Robert Fallis, Damian Fiore, Jeffrey Gelfand, Paul Giacomini, Benjamin Greenberg, David Hafler, Erin Longbrake, Beverly Assman, Carolina Ionete, Ulrike Kaunzner, Christopher Lock, Xiaoye Ma, Bruno Musch, Gabriel Pardo, Jinglan Pei, Fredrik Piehl, Martin Weber, Tjalf Ziemssen, Ann Herman, Christopher Harp, Anne Cross. Neurology Apr 2020, 94 (15 Supplement) 1635 Cross, Anne & Naismith, Robert. (2017). Refining the use of MRI to predict multiple sclerosis. The Lancet Neurology. 17. 10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30459-3. Alvarez EE, Piccio L, Mikesell RJ, Trinkaus K, Parks BJ, Naismith RT, Cross AH. Predicting optimal response to B cell depletion with rituximab in Multiple Sclerosis using CXCL13 index, MRI and clinical measures. Mult Scler J: Exp, Transl Clin 2015 DOI: 10.1177/2055217315623800 Naismith RT, Piccio L, Lyons JA, Lauber J, Tutlam NT, Parks BJ, Trinkaus K, Song SK, Cross AH: Rituximab add-on therapy for breakthrough relapsing multiple sclerosis: a 52-week phase II trial. Neurology 2010; 74: 1860-1867 PMCID: PMC2882224 Piccio LM, Buonsanti C, Schmidt RE, Rinker J, PaninaBordignon P, Cella M, Colonna M, Cross AH: Identification of a novel soluble TREM-2 protein in the cerebrospinal fluid in 7 association with central nervous system inflammation. Brain 2008; 131: 3081-3091 PMCID: PMC2577803 Attarian HP, Brown KM, Duntley SP, Cross AH: The relationship of sleep disturbances to fatigue in multiple sclerosis. Arch. Neurol. 2004; 61: 535–538. Lyons JA, San M, Happ MP, and Cross AH: B-cells are critical to induction of experimental allergic 6 encephalomyelitis by protein but not by a short encephalitogenic peptide. Eur. J. Immunol.1999; 29: 3432-3439 Cross AH, Manning PT, Stern MK, and Misko TP. Evidence for the production of peroxynitrite in inflammatory CNS demyelination. J. Neuroimmunol. 1997; 80:121-130 Cross AH, Misko TP, Lin RF, Hickey WF, Trotter JL, Tilton RG: Aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of inducible nitric oxide synthase, ameliorates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. J Clin Invest 1994;93:2684-2690 PMCID: PMC294515 Cross AH, Tuohy VK, Raine CS: Development of reactivity to new myelin antigens during relapsing autoimmune demyelination. Cell Immunol 1993;146:261-269 Cross AH, Cannella B, Brosnan CF, Raine CS: Homing tocentral nervous system vasculature by antigen specific lymphocytes. I. Localization of 14C-labeled cells during acute, chronic and relapsing experimental allergic encephalomyelitis. Lab Invest 1990;63:162-170