this study seems to be looking into the same antibodies as the German ME study from last year. There's a pretty substantial overlap between ME and POTS, so I think this could potentially become very interesting for us!
In a preliminary study on 16 POTS patients + 20 controls, over 87% of the POTS patients had these antibodies!
http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=240
In a preliminary study on 16 POTS patients + 20 controls, over 87% of the POTS patients had these antibodies!
http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=240
[bimg=400|no-lightbox]http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/images/muscarinic123.jpg[/bimg]Muscarinic receptors are part of the parasympathetic nervous system. When antibodies bind to these receptors, this may cause problems with parasympathetic nerve messaging, which can lead to dysautonomia symptoms. Muscarinic receptor antibodies have previously been associated with other forms of dysautonomia that may have an autoimmune basis, like Chagas disease, Sjogren's syndrome, and idiopathic tachycardia.
In a preliminary study of 16 POTS patients and 20 controls, Dr. Vernino's lab recently found that more than 87% of POTS patients had one or more of the muscarinic antibodies. The research team also found that M1 was associated with cognitive impairment ("brain fog") and M3 was associated with an abnormal QSART (a test that measures small fiber autonomic nerve function in the limbs). In the upcoming study, we hope to improve the method for measuring muscarinic antibodies, validate these findings, and obtain additional information by repeating this study on a larger group of POTS patients during the 2016 conference.