Detection of alpha-subunit isoforms in human muscle acetylcholine receptor by specific T cells from a myasthenia gravis patient

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) is both the best-characterized transmitter receptor-ion channel and the target for the pathogenic antibodies in the human autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis (MG). In cloning and sequencing its components in man, we found that the alpha-subunit was transcribed in two isoforms, with (P3A+) or without (P3A-) a 75 base pair exon that had not been described in other species. While studying the human T lymphocyte response to recombinant AChR, we found that part of this P3A insert was recognized by one T cell line (from an MG patient), whereas another line only recognized the uninterrupted insertion site. To establish whether this exon is also translated in normal human muscle, we initially raised anti-peptide antibodies to the relevant amino acid sequences, but these failed to bind native AChR (affinity-purified from muscle on alpha-neurotoxin columns). We therefore exploited the great sensitivity and specificity of these T cells to detect the two isoforms after unfolding by antigen-presenting cells, and have been able to show that both are expressed in affinity-purified human muscle AChR.