New compound against myasthenia gravis tested in patients' cells
2014
Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands(1)
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, United Kingdom(2)
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, United Kingdom(2)
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is one of the best understood of the numerous autoimmune neurologic diseases. Treatment of MG relies primarily on glucocorticoids, often combined with broad-spectrum immunosuppressants but their efficacy and side effects vary greatly between patients, urging the need for more therapeutic strategies. In the present study, the researchers aimed at studying the potential use of another compound called Bortezomib which had been already used to eliminate malignant plasma cells in other diseases. The study was performed using thymus cells isolated from MG patients treated with bortezomib. The treatment killed long-lived plasma cells and halted their spontaneous production of autoantibodies. In conclusion, bortezomib appears promising for treating MG and possibly other Ab-mediated autoimmune or allergic disorders, especially when given in short courses at modest doses before the standard immunosuppressive drugs have taken effect.
Proteasome inhibition with bortezomib depletes plasma cells and specific autoantibody production in primary thymic cell cultures from early-onset myasthenia gravis patients
Pilar Martinez-Martinez(1), Mario Losen(1), Nick Willcox(2)
Added on: 10-30-2021
[1] https://www.jimmunol.org/content/193/3/1055[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/700397b2-edd7-4ed6-86f7-fc1b164ed432
