Regulatory action of Astragalus saponins and buzhong yiqi compound on synthesis of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antibody in vitro for myasthenia gravis.

With overall analysis of symptoms and signs of myasthenia gravis (MG) basing on "Pi (Spleen) Deficiency" [symbol: see text] theory and with years of our clinical experience in treating MG, we performed a pharmacological study of Astragalus saponins and Buzhong Yiqi Compound (Tonic granulae invigorating vital energy) in 14 peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMNC) cultures from 10 MG patients. PBMNG from two groups of patients given dexamethasone (Dxm) and cobalt 60 (60Co) treatment were used as controls. The results showed that water soluble Astragalus saponins significantly reduced the titer of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antibodies (nAchR-Ab) in the cell culture supernatants, from 418.8-2328 to nil in 6 cases, and from 1143-1235 to 43-157 fmol/ml in 2 cases, and that Buzhong Yiqi compound also had inhibitory immunoregulatory action.

[Circulating immune complexes and myasthenia gravis (analysis of 78 cases)].

For the sake of studying the circulating immune complexes (CIC) of 78 patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), the agglutination assay of C3b sensitized with yeast cell (C3bSYCA) was used. The anti human C3 ELISA was also used for 21 out of the 78 patients. The positive results in the entire group of the patients studied were found to reach 82% and the IgG and IgM CIC were detected also with anti-human C3 ELISA. The titres of CIC thus determined decreased as the clinical conditions improved. It was considered that CIC might be regarded as a referential index to observe the patient's clinical condition and to evaluate the effect of treatment and to identify certain immune aberration of MG as well.