Posted by iforgotmypassword on June 28, 2007, at 14:05:54
**Autoantibodies against four kinds of neurotransmitter receptors in psychiatric disorders.**
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**Autoantibodies against muscarinic cholinergic receptor in chronic fatigue syndrome.**
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It would appear that antibodies to the M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor could be very common in relevant illnesses, according to this study.
How would one test for M1 acetylcholine (ACh) receptor antibodies? Would a myasthenia gravis test acetylcholine receptor antibody test be of use, despite that they are likely designed to be as specific to a type of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor as possible? Is there likely a lot of cross reaction and lack of specificity in antibody tests for receptors that may be closely related?
Based on a case of Lyme, they theorized that there may be some coincidental "epitope homology", or relevant similarity, between Lyme surface antigens and ACh receptors, making antibodies that go after the bodies own ACh receptors as well. In this case, a neuro-Lyme patient presented with myasthenia gravis:
I have also tested positive for IgM antibodies to Lyme, so I am concerned about this. The greater Lyme community is heavily invested in many false cures that are very hard to wade through, so I can't really find much there, and am kind of on my own.
I tried to get IV antibiotics, no luck in Ontario; and no real response to oral antibiotics, and likely to have no luck getting more and making more shots in the dark with drugs I can't even remember to take. Little money to consider other options, especially when I have spent so much on other crap that hasn't helped one bit at all.
I am making a wild guess, from not really understanding how things work, that IgM ACh antibodies seem to be the most symptomatic at least in Myasthenia, as IVIG seems to be used as a treatment to compete or bind to harmful antibodies? (Don't fully understand this.)
poster:iforgotmypassword
thread:766451
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070622/msgs/766451.html