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Sweet taste loss in myasthenia gravis: more than a coincidence?
Joelle N Chabwine, Muriel V Tschirren, Anastasia Zekeridou
1Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Rue du Bugnon 46, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland. thierry.kuntzer@chuv.ch.
Abstract:
Sweet dysgeusia, a rare taste disorder, may be encountered in severe anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody (AChRAb)-myasthenia gravis (MG). A 42 year-old man reported progressive loss of sweet taste evolving for almost 10 weeks, revealing an AChRAb-positive MG with thymoma. Improvement of sweet perception paralleled reduction of the MG composite score during the 15 months follow up period, with immunosuppressive and surgical treatments. We suggest that sweet dysgeusia is a non-motor manifestation of MG that may result from a thymoma-dependent autoimmune mechanism targeting gustducin-positive G-protein-coupled taste receptor cells, in line with recent data from MRL/MpJ-Fas lpr/ (MRL/lpr) transgenic mice with autoimmune disease.
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