Antibodies directed against the post-synaptic neuromuscular junction protein, muscle specific kinase (MuSK) are found in a small proportion of generalized myasthenia gravis (MuSK-MG) patients. MuSK is a receptor tyrosine kinase which is essential for clustering of the acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) at the neuromuscular junction, but the mechanisms by which MuSK antibodies (MuSK-Abs) affect neu...

BACKGROUND Musk is widely used in clinical practice for its anti-cancer properties. Here, we treated various types of cancer using musk to determine which cancers are sensitive to musk treatment. We also compared effects of native musk and synthetic musk ketone in cancer cells. Furthermore, we investigated mechanisms underlying effects of musk. METHODS Twenty two cancer cell lines were treate...

A variable proportion of patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (MG) have autoantibodies to muscle specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK). During development agrin, released from the motor nerve, interacts with low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein-4 (LRP4), which then binds to MuSK; MuSK interaction with the intracellular protein Dok7 results in clustering of the acetylcholine recepto...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Patients with muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK) antibody (MuSK-Ab)-positive myasthenia gravis (MG) show distinct responses to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs). Although clinical responses to AChEIs in MuSK-Ab MG are reasonably well known, little is known about the electrophysiologic responses to AChEIs. We therefore investigated the clinical and electrophysio...

We measured two nitro musk fragrances (musk xylene) and musk ketone) and five polycyclic musk fragrances (galaxolide [HHCB], tonalide [AHTN], celestolide [ADBI], traseolide [ATII], and phantolide [AHMI]) in human blood samples from 11 cities of China (n = 204). Possible temporal trends in musk concentrations and associations with personal factors, such as gender, age, and others, were studied. ...

BACKGROUND Antibodies to a muscle-specific receptor tyrosine kinase (MuSK) have been found in approximately 40% of patients with generalized myasthenia gravis who are seronegative for the antiacetylcholine receptor antibody. Many of the patients with anti-MuSK antibodies have prominent oculobulbar symptoms or weakness of the neck and respiratory muscles, but patients with ocular myasthenia have...

Aim China is among the countries with highest mammal diversity in world, but a considerable proportion of Chinese terrestrial species currently at risk extinction. For effective conservation, it would be fundamental to answer following questions: (1) Is extinction randomly distributed families mammals? (2) If not, which are more threatened than expected by chance? (3) What major ecological pred...

OBJECTIVE To increase the detection of MuSK-Abs using a CBA and test their pathogenicity. METHODS Sera from 69 MuSK-RIA-positive patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) (Definite MuSK-MG), 169 patients negative for MuSK-RIA and AChR-RIA (seronegative MG, SNMG), 35 healthy individuals (healthy controls, HCs), and 16 NMDA receptor-Ab-positive (NMDAR-Ab) disease controls were tested for binding to ...

Agrin-induced clustering of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) in the postsynaptic membrane is a key step in synaptogenesis at the neuromuscular junction. The receptor tyrosine kinase MuSK is a component of the agrin receptor, while the cytoplasmic protein rapsyn is necessary for the clustering of AChRs and all other postsynaptic membrane components studied to date. We show here that MuSK remains ...

Muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) is part of the receptor complex that is involved in the agrin-induced formation of the neuromuscular junction. In the rodent, prominent mRNA expression of MuSK is restricted to skeletal muscle while the expression of agrin can also be detected in brain and certain nonneuronal tissues. The recent identification of Xenopus MuSK reveals that MuSK can be detected in ti...