Antibodies to muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in myasthenia gravis

Daniel M. Michaelson, Amos D. Korczyn, Mordechai Sokolovsky*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

IgG obtained from patients with myasthenia gravis block the specific binding of the muscarinic antagonists (3H)-N-methyl-4-piperidyl benzilate (4NMPB) and (3H)-Quinuclidinyl benzilate to rat brain muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. IgG obtained from healthy controls have a much smaller effect. The inhibitory effect of the myasthenic IgG increases linearly with immunoglobulin concentration and has no effect on the affinity of the muscarinic receptors towards (3H)-4NMPB (KD = 0.7 ± 0.1 nM). This implies that the inhibition is probably due to the blocking of some of the muscarinic receptors by the myasthenic IgG, and not due to alteration in affinity of all the receptors. it remains to be established whether the presence of antimuscarinic receptor activity in the serum of myasthenic patients is of importance in the pathophysiology and diagnosis of myasthenia gravis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)52-57
Number of pages6
JournalBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Volume104
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Jan 1982

Funding

FundersFunder number
Recanati Foundation for Medical Research
Muscular Dystrophy Association

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