August 2026

PULMONARY

STUDY REVEALS HIDDEN IMMUNE ENVIRONMENT IN MYASTHENIA GRAVIS PATIENTS

In a new study published in Science Advances and co-authored by Ankit Bharat, MD, investigators built the largest known cellular and spatial myasthenia gravis (MG) atlas to date. Using the atlas, they identified MG-associated B cell populations within abnormal thymic germinal centers.

More to MG Than Antibodies Alone
The study team analyzed 23 thymus samples from 16 patients using technologies including single-cell RNA sequencing, immune receptor analysis and spatial transcriptomics.

After integrating their data with previously published datasets, the team created an atlas containing nearly 347,000 cells, making it the most comprehensive atlas of the MG thymus to date. They found a diverse population of class-switched B cells clustered in and around abnormal germinal centers in MG tissue. These cells appeared to rely on a separate survival pathway involving BAFF and BCMA molecules.

​The authors describe the finding as a potential tolerance checkpoint swap: disease-associated B cells appeared less associated with survival signals from the surrounding tissue environment.

Clinical Impact
The findings may help shed light on why antibody levels do not always match disease severity and why improvement after thymectomy can vary, though the study didn’t test those questions. Nevertheless, these findings inform future investigations.

Read more about this study on Northwestern Medicine Newsroom. ​
Ankit Bharat, MD, served as co-corresponding author. Dr. Bharat is chief clinical officer, thoracic, at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare; the executive director of Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute; and the Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Professor of Surgery.

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