Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoantibodies-mediated
autoimmune disease with the complications of neuromuscular junction transmission.
In this study, we aimed to investigate the molecular regulatory roles of pentaxin
3 (PTX3) in patients and in animal model with MG and to explore its underlying
mechanism. Methods: Patients with MG were identified and enrolled at our
designated hospital and animal model was utilized for the proposed study. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
kit were used to quantify the IL-1, IL-6, INF-, IL-17,
TNF-, anti-TAChR IgG/IgG1/IgG2b/IgG2c levels. Results: Serum
PTX3 expression level in patients with MG was up-regulated as compared to normal.
Furthermore, we found increased expression level of mRNA and protein product of
PTX3 in the mice with MG. PTX3 promoted inflammation, pyroptosis in patients as
well as in the MG mouse model. In addition, PTX3 induced the STAT3/NLRP3
inflammasome and promoted gene synthesis of STAT3. We found that METTL3-mediated
m6A modification decreases PTX3 stability. Conclusions: Our study
suggests that the PTX3 is associated with the enhancement of inflammation and
pyroptosis through regulating the STAT3/NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway at
the early stage of the disease. The pro-inflammatory PTX3 facilitates the
development of MG and it can be used as a potantial MG-associated diagnostic
biomarker for MG.