Publications by authors named "S M Laakso"
Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is commonly associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). Whether TN should be considered a clinical relapse or evidence of active disease lacks consensus. TN was diagnosed in 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyasthenia gravis (MG) is a rare autoimmune disorder characterised by muscle weakness resulting from autoantibody-mediated disruption of the neuromuscular junction. Notably, it is also frequently associated with thymic pathology. This study explores the relationship between MG and DNA viruses in the thymus, employing targeted NGS and qPCR to analyse thymic tissue samples from both MG patients and healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Exacerbation of myasthenia gravis (MG) with respiratory failure requires intensive care. We aimed to study the risk factors for intensive care unit admission for MG exacerbation and myasthenic crisis (MC) and the prognosis of people with MG (pwMG) thereafter.
Methods: This retrospective study investigated patients in the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district during the years 2008-2021.
Article Synopsis
- APECED is a serious genetic autoimmune disorder linked to variants in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene, with 16% of evaluated patients lacking known harmful variants, most of whom are of Puerto Rican descent.
- Researchers discovered a deep intronic variant (c.1504-818 G>A) in these patients that causes a cryptic splice site leading to a dysfunctional protein through pseudoexon inclusion.
- They developed an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that corrected this genetic issue, demonstrating the potential for targeted treatments in APECED patients.
Article Synopsis
- Mucosal-associated invariant T cells (MAIT) are important immune cells found in mucosal organs that help defend against infections, and their presence is reduced in patients with APECED, a genetic immune disorder linked to chronic fungal infections.
- In a study involving 24 APECED patients, it was found that their circulating MAIT cells made up a smaller percentage of their T cells compared to healthy individuals, but these patient MAIT cells still showed comparable levels of IFN-γ production when stimulated.
- The study also revealed that lower proportions of MAIT cells in APECED patients correlated with higher levels of certain inflammatory markers (IFN-γ and IL-18), suggesting that even though MAITs were fewer