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Brain, Vol. 124, No. 5, 847-848, May 2001
© 2001 Oxford University Press

Editorial

Double agents and breakdown of integrity at the neuromuscular junction in Miller–Fisher syndrome

Clarke Slater

School of Neurosciences and Psychiatry, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

The neuromuscular junction lies beyond the protective security network of the blood–brain barrier and the connective tissue sheaths of peripheral nerves. This makes it vulnerable to attack by a variety of foreign agents such as the bacterial toxin that causes botulism and the paralytic components of animal venoms such as {alpha}-latrotoxin, produced by the black widow spider. In addition, homology between foreign antigens and extracellular components of `self' proteins (`molecular mimicry') may result in autoantibodies of internal origin, arising during the normal defensive activity of the immune system, acting as double agents by binding to normal components of the neuromuscular junction. In the Miller–Fisher syndrome (MFS), . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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