Myasthenia gravis: recognition of a human autoantigen at the molecular level

MP Protti, AA Manfredi, RM Horton, M Bellone… - Immunology today, 1993 - cell.com
MP Protti, AA Manfredi, RM Horton, M Bellone, BM Conti-Tronconi
Immunology today, 1993cell.com
Tbe symptoms of myastbenia gravis are primarily or exchtsively due to an autoimmune
response against the muscle nicotinic acetyLholine receptor (AChR) and this has been the
object of intensive investigations for almost 20 years. A detailed picture at tbe molecular
level of the interaction of this autoantigen with the key elements involved in the autoimmune
response, such as anti-AChR antibodies, the T-cell receptor and restricting major
histocompatibility complex molecules, is now emerging for both human myasthenia gravis …
Tbe symptoms of myastbenia gravis are primarily or exchtsively due to an autoimmune response against the muscle nicotinic acetyLholine receptor (AChR) and this has been the object of intensive investigations for almost 20 years. A detailed picture at tbe molecular level of the interaction of this autoantigen with the key elements involved in the autoimmune response, such as anti-AChR antibodies, the T-cell receptor and restricting major histocompatibility complex molecules, is now emerging for both human myasthenia gravis and its experimental model, experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis. Here, Mar;.~ Pia Protti and colleagues focus on the molecular interactions occurring in human myasthenia gravis and summarize recent information on pathogenic mechanisms of the autoimmune response, and the structure of epitopes recognized by B cells and CD4+ T cells ofmyasthenic patients on the AChR molecule.
Before noon, tbe stores of the spirit which influenced the muscle being abnost spent, they are scarcely able to move hand and foot... this person for some thne speaks freely and readily enough, but after long, basty or laborious speaking, presently sbe becomes mute as a fish and cannot bring forth a word. Thomas Willis, De Anima Brutorum, 1672
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