Cytokines myasthenia gravis

Autoimmune diseases have been reported to be more frequent in human subjects treated with several recombinant cytokines [38], For instance, increased titers or the new occurrence of autoantibodies have been observed in hepatitis C patients treated with the recombinant interferons-alpha (IFNa). Quite a few clinical case reports describe the development of organ-specific as well as systemic autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus, insulin-dependent type I diabetes mellitus, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, myasthenia gravis, and autoimmune thyroiditis in patients under IFNa therapy. Although the mechanism involved is not fully elucidated, the available data support the pathogenic potential of IFNa in autoimmunity [31]. In contrast, autoimmune effects associated with IFNp therapy are thought to be of lesser concern based on the current clinical evidence [38], Thyroid autoimmunity in contrast to other autoimmune diseases is frequent in patients treated with recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2). Thus, among 281 previously euthyroid cancer patients treated with rIL-2, up to 41%... 

Borgia G, Reynaud L, Gentile I, Cerini R, Ciampi R, Dello Russo M, Piazza M. Myasthenia gravis during low-dose IFN-alpha therapy for chronic hepatitis C. J Interferon Cytokine Res 2001 21(7) 469-70. 

IFNa-2a, ribavirin and the protease inhibitor telaprevir, the known occurrence of previous cases of the nemomuscu-lar disease myasthenia gravis following IFN-ribavirin treatment suggests that the cytokine and / or ribavirin was the causative agent and not the telaprevir [35 ]. 

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