Dwyer D S, Bradley R J, Urquhart C K, Kearney J F
Nature. 1983;301(5901):611-4. doi: 10.1038/301611a0.
Aberrant regulation of the immune system can lead to the development of autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis. Autoantibodies against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) are found in the serum of myasthenia gravis patients and trigger a reduction of AChR at the muscle endplate resulting in increased muscle fatiguability. It is possible that the autoimmune response results from altered idiotype anti-idiotype network interactions. Here we have used a monoclonal anti-AChR antibody (ACR-24, gamma 1, kappa) in an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) to measure anti-AChR immunoglobulin in human sera. In this assay, ACR-24 is attached to microtitre plates followed by the addition of solubilized human AChR which is bound by the immobilized ACR-24. However, during the development of this assay, it was observed that certain myasthenic patients appeared to have antibodies which bound to ACR-24 alone. This unexpected finding suggested that we had discovered naturally occurring anti-idiotype antibodies in myasthenic sera.
免疫系统的异常调节可导致自身免疫性疾病的发生，如重症肌无力。在重症肌无力患者的血清中发现了针对烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体（AChR）的自身抗体，这些抗体可导致肌肉终板处AChR减少，从而增加肌肉疲劳性。自身免疫反应可能是由独特型抗独特型网络相互作用改变引起的。在这里，我们使用单克隆抗AChR抗体（ACR-24，γ1，κ）在酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）中测量人血清中的抗AChR免疫球蛋白。在该测定中，ACR-24附着于微量滴定板上，随后加入可溶解的人AChR，其与固定化的ACR-24结合。然而，在该测定方法的开发过程中，观察到某些重症肌无力患者似乎有一种仅与ACR-24结合的抗体。这一意外发现表明我们在重症肌无力血清中发现了天然存在的抗独特型抗体。
