Boosting transmission

Muscle weakness associated with myasthenia gravis (MG) is commonly treated with AChE inhibitors that prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, but the drugs have diverse side effects because the neurotransmitter's receptors are found across the whole nervous system, not just in muscle. Instead, NMD Pharma ApS is developing compounds to maximize the residual muscle activity by targeting an ion channel specific to skeletal muscle fibers.

The autoantibodies generated in MG diminish postsynaptic currents in neuromuscular synapses, preventing muscles from responding properly to nerve discharges. But rather than addressing the underlying cause of the poor synaptic transmission, NMD's goal is to magnify the remaining signal, using small molecule inhibitors that work by amplifying incoming nerve signals to enable muscle contraction...