title: The clinical significance of anti-heat shock cognate protein 71 antibody in myasthenia gravis.
abstract: Anti-heat shock cognate protein 71 antibody (HSC71 Ab) formation in the sera of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients was measured, and the correlation between HSC71 Ab titers, clinical features and therapy efficacies for MG patients were examined. Clinical evaluations were performed according to the MG Foundation of America (MGFA) clinical classification. Therapy efficacies were measured using the MG activities of daily living (MG-ADL) score. Before treatment, 38 out of 48 serum samples (79%) from MG patients showed positive HSC71 Ab titers. In the "therapy-responsive group", HSC71 Ab titers significantly reduced, along with patient clinical improvements. Conversely, in the "therapy-resistant group", HSC71 Ab titers did not decline. The use of tacrolimus resulted in improvement in clinical manifestations together with a reduction in HSC71 Ab titers in the "therapy-resistant group". Thus, measurement of HSC71 Ab in the sera of MG patients seemed useful, as it appeared to reflect the effectiveness of treatment and allowed prediction of prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Munakata
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Fumie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aosai
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nemoto
authors.forename: Kazumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Norose
authors.forename: Takamichi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yano
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D050883:HSC70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000523:psychology; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000276:immunology; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D001323:Autoantibodies; D050883:HSC70 Heat-Shock Proteins; C494371:HSPA8 protein, human; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic