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Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports
Published in: Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports 7/2016

01-07-2016 | Nerve and Muscle (LH Weimer, Section Editor)

Muscle-Specific Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (MuSK) Myasthenia Gravis

Authors: Rebecca L. Hurst, Clifton L. Gooch

Published in: Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports | Issue 7/2016

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Abstract

Autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG) is the prototypic, antibody-mediated neuromuscular disease and is characterized by a decrease in the number of functional acetylcholine receptors (AChR) within the muscle end plate zone of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Although the pathophysiology of AChR-mediated myasthenia gravis has been extensively studied over the last 40 years since its original description by Patrick and Lindstrom (Science 180:871–872, 1973), less is known about the much more recently described muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) antibody-mediated MG. MuSK-MG has features clinically distinct from Ach-R MG, as well as a different pattern of response to treatment and a unique immunopathogenesis.
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Metadata
Title
Muscle-Specific Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (MuSK) Myasthenia Gravis
Authors
Rebecca L. Hurst
Clifton L. Gooch
Publication date
01-07-2016
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports / Issue 7/2016
Print ISSN: 1528-4042
Electronic ISSN: 1534-6293
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-016-0668-z

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