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Myasthenia gravis
Make it clearer
Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease, meaning that the body's defense system attacks its own tissue by mistake. What it attacks here is the neuromuscular junction, the exact point where a nerve signals a muscle. The result is weakness of the voluntary muscles, the ones you move on purpose.
To understand it, you have to see how the command is given under normal conditions. When the electrical signal travels down the nerve and reaches its tip, the tip releases a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, the messenger substance. Acetylcholine crosses the gap and attaches to receptors on the muscle, and that docking is what triggers the contraction.
In myasthenia gravis, antibodies, which are proteins of the immune system, block, alter or destroy those acetylcholine receptors. The message is sent in full; what is missing is the mailbox to deliver it to. Symptoms include weakness of the eye muscles, drooping of one or both eyelids, which is called ptosis, and blurred or double vision, which is called diplopia.
In brief
Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction that causes weakness of the voluntary muscles.
The nerve releases acetylcholine, which binds to its receptors and makes the muscle contract; here antibodies block, alter or destroy those receptors.
The message is sent in full; what is missing is the mailbox to deliver it to.
Symptoms include weakness of the eye muscles, drooping of one or both eyelids, and blurred or double vision.
Sources (2)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingMyasthenia Gravis, StatPearlsPublished
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and StrokeMyasthenia Gravis, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and StrokePublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated