Antibodies against acetylcholinesterase and low levels of cholinesterases in a patient with an atypical neuromuscular disorder.

Antibodies against acetylcholinesterase were found in the serum of a patient presenting dyspnea, generalized muscle paresis, diminished tendon reflexes, and fasciculations. Electrodiagnostic studies showed a decremental response, an incomplete interference pattern, and reduced motor nerve conduction velocity. Edrophonium administration resulted in extreme cholinergic crisis. Biopsies displayed muscle atrophy and nervous tissue degeneration. Recurrent acute respiratory failure ended in death. The patient's serum pseudocholinesterase and red blood cells acetylcholinesterase levels were generally very low, with periodical fluctuations. Minute quantities of the patient's serum inhibited the activity of cholinesterases from normal human serum and from various fetal tissues. Enzyme inhibition was abolished following preadsorption of the serum immunoglobulins with goat antihuman Fab, and radioiodinated acetylcholinesterase from human erythrocytes was precipitated by the patient's serum, confirming that anticholinesterase antibodies were present. Acetylcholinesterase extracted from fetal striated muscle with detergent and salt was inhibited to a larger extent than the enzymes similarly prepared from other fetal tissues and more efficiently than buffer-soluble muscle enzyme. These findings suggest that the patient's serum contained antibodies which interacted preferentially with the membrane-associated forms of muscle acetylcholinesterase and indicate that autoantibodies against acetylcholinesterase could play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease.

Intrinsic cholinergic excitation in the rat neostriatum: nicotinic and muscarinic receptors.

An in vitro slice technique was employed to study the receptors involved in intrinsic cholinergic excitation in the rat neostriatum. The locally evoked synaptic potentials were suppressed by antinicotinic agents, mecamylamine (10 muM), d-tubocurarine (3 muM) or hexamethonium (100 muM), but not by the antimuscarinic agent atropine (100 muM). If the slices were exposed to an acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-inhibitor (paraoxon 1--20 muM, physostigmine 0.1--0.5 muM), the synaptic potentials were potentiated. The amplitude of the orthodromic population spike increased, and it was further facilitated when the stimulus frequencies were raised from 1--3 Hz to 10--30 Hz. The frequency facilitation following exposure to an AChE-inhibitor was blocked by atropine (1--100 muM). Intracellular recording indicated that a slow depolarizing potential caused the frequency potentiation of the orthodromic discharges. Apparently rat neostriatum is similar to cholinergic systems in sympathetic ganglia and spinal Renshaw cells, in that nicotinic receptors mediate fast excitation and muscarinic receptors mediate slow excitation.