Effects of combined traditional Chinese medicine with immunosuppressive agents for patients with myasthenia gravis

Abstract

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a kind of autoimmune disease induced by transferring dysfunction of neuromuscular junction. In the present study, we developed an integrated therapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine and immuno suppressive agents to seek for an effective treatment of MG. 220 MG patients were randomly divided into two groups with different therapies. Plasma levels of acetylcholine receptors antibodies (AchRAb) and CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells (CD4(+)CD25(+)Treg) were conducted through ELISA and flow cytometry. The amount of AchRAb (8.52±0.96 vs. 5.22±0.46) and CD4(+)CD25(+)Treg (1.94±1.21 vs. 3.21±0.96) in Group A receiving integrated therapy were significantly improved compared with Group B; the clinical performance of group treated with the integrated therapy was also much better. The integrated therapy in the present study could significantly improve the condition of MG with high recovery rate and low recurrence rate, which can be employed in future clinical treatment of MG.

Keywords: Myasthenia gravis; clinical performance; immunosuppressor; integrated treatment; traditional Chinese medicine.

Figure 1

Comparison image results of 3 cases after 18 month treatments.