February 11 - 18, 2000
On the Road to MG Vaccine
Researchers at UAB are on the road to a vaccine for myasthenia gravis (MG), a disabling muscular disease. MG hinders muscle movement by blocking muscle cell receptors from receiving signals from the nervous system. Edwin Blalock, Ph.D., UAB professor of physiology and biophysics, is developing a vaccine that prompts the body's immune system to attack the proteins responsible for the block. "The vaccine, which the body recognizes as an intruder, looks very much like the blocking proteins. The immune system is tricked into attacking and destroying both." MG affects about 36,000 people in the United States.
Call Bob Shepard, Media Relations, 205-934-8934, or e-mail [email protected].
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