Please verify your email address to receive email notifications.

Enter your email address

We have sent you a verification email. Please check your inbox and spam folder.

Unable to send verification, please refresh and try again later.

  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    What causes myasthenia gravis?

    Related Topics
    Myasthenia Gravis Neurology
    • 1 answer
    • Dr Simon Easterbrook-Smith
    answer this question

  • Find a professional to answer your question

  • 1

    Agree

    3

    Thanks

    Dr Simon Easterbrook-Smith

    Health Professional

    My research interests include immunology and the mechanisms of amyloid formation. The latter has implications for people who are dealing with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease … View Profile

    Myastenia gravis is an auto-immune disease. What that means is that the immune system, which normally detects foreign (“non-self”) pathogens like bacteria, viruses, etc and gets rid of them, sometimes “makes a mistake” by “thinking” that normal (“self”) body cells are foreign and attacks them.

    In the specific context of myastenia gravis, antibodies attack a normal body protein called the acetyl choline receptor. The job of this protein is to send a message from a nerve to a muscle, telling the muscle to contract. The antibodies prevent this, leading to the muscle weakness associated with myastenia gravis.

    This site has more technical detail and also provides links to support forums: http://www.myasthenia.org.au/default.htm .

    Reply to this post
     · 
    Report
answer this question

You must be a Health Professional to answer this question. Log in or Sign up .

You may also like these related questions

Related Fact Sheets
Related Questions

Empowering Australians to make better health choices