Daunomycin treatment prevents clinical expression of experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis.

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune neuromuscular disease, characterized by muscle weakness and electrophysiological abnormality. No treatment which would reliably induce permanent clinical remission of MG is yet available. The therapeutic efficacy and toxic effect of daunomycin (Dm), an antibiotic of the rhodomycin group, was evaluated in murine experimental autoimmune MG. Low dosage Dm treatment effectively prevented the development of muscle weakness and its associated electrophysiological abnormality, without inducing detectable toxicity and global immunosuppression.