November 11, 2013
New Cause Found for Muscle-Weakening Disease Myasthenia Gravis
GRA Eminent Scholar Dr. Lin Mei and his team identify new antibody
By Atlanta Business Chronicle
An antibody to a protein critical to allowing the brain to talk to muscles has been ID'd as a cause of myasthenia gravis — the most common disease affecting brain-muscle interaction, according to Georgia Regents University.
The finding that an antibody to LRP4 is a cause of myasthenia gravis helps explain why up to 10 percent of patients have symptoms, such as drooping eyelids and generalized muscle weakness, yet their blood provides no clue of the cause, noted Dr. Lin Mei, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
