“…Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) are the targets of both autoimmune and genetic diseases (Drachman, 1994;Lindstrom, 2000aLindstrom, , 2002aVernino et al, 2000;Grando, 2000;Engel et al, 1999Engel et al, , 2002aSteinlein, 2000;Kuryatov et al, 1997;De Fusco et al, 2000;Phillips et al, 2001). For both types of pathologies, initially myasthenias rather than neuronal AChR diseases were discovered because we better understand the functional role of muscle AChRs and most easily recognized the effects on neuromuscular transmission of pathologies resulting from decreasing or increasing AChR function.…”