Current Treatment, Emerging Translational Therapies, and New Therapeutic Targets for Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis.

ABSTRACT: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease associated with the production of autoantibodies against 1) the skeletal muscle acetylcholine receptor; 2) muscle-specific kinase, a receptor tyrosine kinase critical for the maintenance of neuromuscular synapses; 3) low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 4, an important molecular binding partner for muscle-specific kinase; and 4) other muscle endplate proteins. In addition to the profile of autoantibodies, MG may be classified according the location of the affected muscles (ocular vs generalized), the age of symptom onset, and the nature of thymic pathology. Immunopathologic events leading to the production of autoantibodies differ in the various disease subtypes. Advances in our knowledge of the immunopathogenesis of the subtypes

SUBMITTER: Guptill JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4720661 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature