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Autoantibodies in Neuromuscular Disorders

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Acquired Neuromuscular Disorders

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Abstract

Autoimmune neuromuscular disorders are very heterogeneous both in their clinical presentation and their pathogenesis. The discovery of specific autoantibodies targeting the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in myasthenia gravis led the way in the description of a wide variety of autoantibodies that helped diagnosing, classifying, and treating autoimmune disorders of the neuromuscular junction, inflammatory neuropathies, and myositis. The description of antibodies against muscle-specific kinase in myasthenia, antiganglioside antibodies, or the new antibodies against paranodal structures in inflammatory neuropathies and the anti-synthetase antibodies in myositis was critical for the detection of distinct diseases and phenotypes within classical clinical syndromes. Searching for highly disease-specific autoantibodies should be a priority in autoimmune neuromuscular disorders to understand their pathogenesis and base diagnosis in biomarkers rather than clinical criteria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuromuscular Diseases Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Mas Casanovas 90, Barcelona, 08041, Spain

    Luis Querol MD, PhD, Eduard Gallardo PhD & Isabel Illa Sendra MD, PhD

  2. Centro para la Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Raras – CIBERER, Madrid, Spain

    Luis Querol MD, PhD, Eduard Gallardo PhD & Isabel Illa Sendra MD, PhD

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  1. Luis Querol MD, PhD
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  2. Eduard Gallardo PhD
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  3. Isabel Illa Sendra MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Isabel Illa Sendra MD, PhD .

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  1. Neuromuscular Center, IRCCS Fondazione San Camillo Hospit, Venice, Italy

    Corrado Angelini

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Querol, L., Gallardo, E., Illa Sendra, I. (2016). Autoantibodies in Neuromuscular Disorders. In: Angelini, C. (eds) Acquired Neuromuscular Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29514-5_1

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