Michelangelo Cao

Background: Reports about the neurologic consequences of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) describe more cases of central than peripheral nervous system involvement. Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune neuromuscular disorder that affects the peripheral nervous system. Other observers recently described 3 patients who developed myasthenia gravis with antibodies against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1).

Abstract Objective To determine whether an SRC homology 2 domain-containing phosphotyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2) inhibitor would increase muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) phosphorylation and override the inhibitory effect of MuSK-antibodies (Abs). Methods The effect of the SHP2 inhibitor NSC-87877 on MuSK phosphorylation and AChR clustering was tested in C2C12 myotubes with 31 MuSK-myasthenia gravis (MG) sera and purified MuSK-MG IgG4 preparations.