Patients

Sera from patients with nAChR-MG, confirmed by RIPA, were provided by the diagnostic department of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute (HPI). The sera samples used were collected from at least two different time points for most of these patients. In total, 55 sera were collected from 20 patients with MG (Table 1). Clinical data from 9 patients are available and given in Table 1.

Results of the tested sera.

Patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) are grouped by autoAbs specificity. The year of the sample collection, the age of the patients, and the time of disease onset are listed. The distribution and severity of myasthenic weakness were classified according to the MG Foundation of America (MGFA) grading system. The titer of the anti-nAChR autoAbs is given as estimated by RIPA. All the sera were tested for the presence of anti-nAChR autoAbs targeting the extracellular part of the receptor by CBA. The sera were also tested for the presence of the autoAbs against each ECD of the five subunits of the receptor and the percentage of immunoadsorption presented here was estimated as described in “Materials and Methods” section. The average percentage of immunoadsorption from three experiments is presented. In parenthesis, the numbers refer to the ±SD of the immunoadsorption percentage between the different experiments (there was no depletion of autoAbs after the treatment with δ and ε ECD sepharose beads and thus these are not shown in the table).

N, negative; A, ambiguous; P, positive; n.a., not available; PR, pharmacology remission.