Zouvelou V, Michail M, Belimezi M, Haroniti A, Zisimopoulou P. Characterization of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antibodies after an unexpected increase of antibody titer in thymoma associated myasthenia gravis patients.
Neuromuscul Disord 2022;
32:847-850. [PMID:
36028368 DOI:
10.1016/j.nmd.2022.08.003]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Revised: 07/25/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Two thymoma-associated myasthenia gravis patients with chronic well-controlled disease but an unexpected increase in anti-nAChR autoantibodies titer are reported. The specificity of anti-nAChR autoantibodies directed against extracellular parts of the receptor was studied in order to investigate the discrepancy between clinical and immunological status. Analysis of the anti-nAChR autoantibodies recognizing the extracellular parts of the nAChR revealed that when the concentration of anti-nAChR autoantibodies titer increased both patients had non-anti-α1 autoantibodies. Since the clinical profile of both patients remained unchanged, the increase of non-anti-α1 autoantibodies did not affect the 2 patients' disease progression. Thus, immunotherapy modification due to an increase of anti-nAChR autoantibodies titer could be erroneous and potentially harmful.
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