News

Treatment with Rituxan (rituximab) benefits patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) with either anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) or muscle-specific tyrosine kinases (MuSKs) antibodies, a study has found. Patients with MuSKs antibodies, however, may experience greater improvement, including less time to achieve remission, fewer exacerbations, and need for hospitalizations following treatment. The…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a vast government bureaucracy, employs about 17,500 people and had a budget of $5.7 billion in 2019. Yet even with its enormous resources, the FDA these days relies more and more on patients to…

Receiving fewer plasma exchange, or plasmapheresis treatments and having poorer kidney function with lower filtration rates are risk factors for myasthenia relapses, a study suggests. Over a follow-up of 50 months, patients without relapses were found to have higher glomerular filtration…

The gleaming new Dutch headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), fronting Domenico Scarlattilaan in Amsterdam’s suburban Zuidas business district, finally opened for business last month — just over two years after the European Union decided to relocate the EMA to the Netherlands in the wake of Brexit.

The type of antibodies found in children with myasthenia gravis (MG) was the primary predictor of disease remission, or not requiring medication for one full year, a study showed.  Additional factors influencing remission were being younger than 10 years old at…

People with myasthenia gravis (MG) are at higher risk of developing serious infections than those without the condition, a recent study has found. Although more research into the causes is needed, this finding may have implications for prevention strategies such as vaccinations and preventive antibiotic use, the researchers said.

A 35 year-old man with myasthenia gravis (MG) who developed a rare lymphoma — called mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) — in the thymus gland containing “extensive” amyloid deposits is described, for potentially a first time, in a case report. The report, “Amyloid deposition in thymic extranodal marginal…

The anticholinergic agent glycopyrrolate — known to decrease stomach acid and saliva production — could be safely used to control “death rattle” breathing in people with myasthenia gravis (MG), a recent case report suggests. The report, titled “Glycopyrrolate and the Management of “Death Rattle” in…

Administration of the probiotic bifidobacteria may ease myasthenia gravis (MG) symptoms by regulating the behavior of immune cells and altering the makeup of gut bacteria, a study in rats suggests. The study, “Therapeutic Effect of Bifidobacterium Administration on Experimental Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis in Lewis Rats,”…

Scientists have created — in a lab dish — a three-dimensional model system made of human neurons and muscle cells that can be used to study neuromuscular disorders, including myasthenia gravis. The new model is described in the study, “Self-Organizing 3D Human Trunk Neuromuscular Organoids,” published in…