Inflammation Immune Cell Switch Discovered

[tcmgpt13]

Autoimmune diseases and inflammation may be part of the picture for our symptoms as well as those for lyme disease. Research has discovered the protein which evidently turns inflammation on or off in macrophages (a type of white blood cell). The hope is that blocking this particular protein will lead to new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus and multiple sclerosis as well as other autoimmune diseases. Researchers are also looking into boosting the levels of this protein in those who have weakened, damaged, or compromised immune systems because this means a person would have a limited ability to fight off infections effectively.

Scientists find inflammation immune cell switch
By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:15am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a protein that acts as a "master switch" to determine whether certain white blood cells will boost or dampen inflammation, a finding that may help the search for new drugs for rheumatoid arthritis.

Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis are treated with a class of drugs known as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors. But around 30 percent of patients don't respond to anti-TNF drugs, so experts say there is an urgent need to develop more widely effective treatment options.

In this study, scientists from Imperial College in London found that a protein called IRF5 acts as a molecular switch that controls whether certain white blood cells, known as macrophages, will promote or inhibit inflammation.

In a report of their findings in the journal Nature Immunology on Sunday, they said the results suggest that blocking the production of IRF5 in macrophages might be an effective way of treating a wide range of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus and multiple sclerosis.

They also suggest that boosting IRF5 levels might help treat people whose immune systems are weak, compromised or damaged.

"Our results show that IRF5 is the master switch in a key set of immune cells, which determines the profile of genes that get turned on in those cells," Irina Udalova, senior researcher on the study, said in a statement.

"This is really exciting because it means that if we can design molecules that interfere with IRF5 function, it could give us new anti-inflammatory treatments for a wide variety of conditions."

The researchers said IRF5 seems to work by switching on genes that stimulate inflammatory responses and dampening genes that inhibit them.

It can do this either by interacting with DNA directly, or by interacting with other proteins that themselves control which genes are switched on, they explained in their study.

Udalova's team is now studying how IRF5 works at a molecular level and which other proteins it interacts with so that they can design ways to block its effects.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting around 1 percent of the world's population and arises when the immune system mistakenly attacks joints all over the body. As well as joints, it may also affect the skin, heart, lungs, kidneys and blood vessels. Many sufferers get deformed hands and feet, which hamper movement and ability to function.

Scientists find inflammation immune cell switch | Reuters

Abstract about the research:

Polymorphisms in the gene encoding the transcription factor IRF5 that lead to higher mRNA expression are associated with many autoimmune diseases. Here we show that IRF5 expression in macrophages was reversibly induced by inflammatory stimuli and contributed to the plasticity of macrophage polarization. High expression of IRF5 was characteristic of M1 macrophages, in which it directly activated transcription of the genes encoding interleukin 12 subunit p40 (IL-12p40), IL-12p35 and IL-23p19 and repressed the gene encoding IL-10. Consequently, those macrophages set up the environment for a potent T helper type 1 (TH1)-TH17 response. Global gene expression analysis demonstrated that exogenous IRF5 upregulated or downregulated expression of established phenotypic markers of M1 or M2 macrophages, respectively. Our data suggest a critical role for IRF5 in M1 macrophage polarization and define a previously unknown function for IRF5 as a transcriptional repressor.

IRF5 promotes inflammatory macrophage polarization and TH1-TH17 responses : Nature Immunology : Nature Publishing Group

[lamb]

See ScienceNOW by Jocelyn Kaiser posted today about RNA.
I apologize for being posting illiterate.. ggle it.. probably will get re-located.

[Bustercat]

When I first got this disease, I had never experienced the overwhelming production of mucous, I quite litterly was drownding in it. My lower lungs filled to the max. My vocal cords had holes in them like inhabited with morgie. The mucous shut down, my air supply.

I think that some one found the gene earlier, and caused this autoimmune devastation. Along with the tricky fungus, and various other pathogens. The immune system wasn't just turned on, the dam was broken, and I barely lived to tell about it. Hiding alien vectors surging everywhere, cortizone didn't even touch it. I was in for the battle of my life, like in the movie of the dark matrix. Making it past these high hurdles, doesn't give me a sense of victory, it only sharpens my mind to these last days of biological warfare. Thanks for listening. Bustercat

[tcmgpt13]

Are you talking about the breast cancer/RNA article, entitled Universal Marker for Tumor Cells?

I can send you the link in a pm so you can start a thread about that if that's the right article. I was not sure if that was the one you meant as it's dated 13 January, 2011.

Originally Posted by lamb

See ScienceNOW by Jocelyn Kaiser posted today about RNA.
I apologize for being posting illiterate.. ggle it.. probably will get re-located.

[tcmgpt13]

Well, I can only speak for myself about what happened to me. There are plenty of triggers for this or any other illness in the environment we live in IMHO. My illness was triggered by eating a fish which contained ciguatera, a potent neurotoxin which can trigger immune dysfunction. Many living along coast lines and estuaries are exposed directly to dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria. In fact even inland cyanobacteria can be found in the water. It, too, at times may contain neurotoxins. Unfortunately this is a very complex disease and unless more recognition comes for the disease we are all spinning our wheels.

Originally Posted by Bustercat

When I first got this disease, I had never experienced the overwhelming production of mucous, I quite litterly was drownding in it. My lower lungs filled to the max. My vocal cords had holes in them like inhabited with morgie. The mucous shut down, my air supply.

I think that some one found the gene earlier, and caused this autoimmune devastation. Along with the tricky fungus, and various other pathogens. The immune system wasn't just turned on, the dam was broken, and I barely lived to tell about it. Hiding alien vectors surging everywhere, cortizone didn't even touch it. I was in for the battle of my life, like in the movie of the dark matrix. Making it past these high hurdles, doesn't give me a sense of victory, it only sharpens my mind to these last days of biological warfare. Thanks for listening. Bustercat

[Bustercat]

I have noticed that my so called arthritist has vanished from my nuckles, as the morgie debri leaves,or what ever the stuff, my joints are delicate again. Lots of heavy duty black pieces were settled around the bones in my hand also. Walla, no more pain in joints. I think, that this morgellons challange has opened many doors.

[jeanlong]

thank you for sharing this info...that's fascinating. How was the ciguatera identified? obviously if you knew you would not have consumed it. Is there an antidote that you took after learning that you ingested ciguatera?

Originally Posted by tcmgpt13

Well, I can only speak for myself about what happened to me. There are plenty of triggers for this or any other illness in the environment we live in IMHO. My illness was triggered by eating a fish which contained ciguatera, a potent neurotoxin which can trigger immune dysfunction. Many living along coast lines and estuaries are exposed directly to dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria. In fact even inland cyanobacteria can be found in the water. It, too, at times may contain neurotoxins. Unfortunately this is a very complex disease and unless more recognition comes for the disease we are all spinning our wheels.

[tcmgpt13]

I think ciguatera could be part of the picture for me because I was violently ill after eating cooked grouper. My tongue was reddened from it and I was sick in every way imaginable. Fortunately I had both diarrhea and vomiting as symptoms of this. I went up to my TCM practitioner right away and was treated at the time with herbs which I think was very fortunate or the residuals from the exposure to the poison would have been greater, such as I never had the feeling that something which was actually hot felt cold. Still the overwhelming fatigue and the outbreak of more than one type of parasite was the result of this exposure.

My doctor (three years later) said that the exposure to the poison triggered whatever else was going on in my body, that I already had some parasites. This triggered their outbreak along with the outbreak of herpes viral lesions on my back (it was three years later when I developed that particular symptom of herpes viral lesions on my back in addition to the lesions which had obvious parasite involvement and were present from about the first month).

Still my feeling is that some of the parasites were in the fish, perhaps not cooked sufficiently in that restaurant. Believe me, I never will eat fresh fish again, especially since reading about how polluted the fish is these days. Much of the fish in stores and restaurant comes from highly polluted fish farms in the Orient. My diagnosis, late as it was, came from telling the doctor what happened to me, as he was an infectious disease doctor and familiar with the symptoms of this type of poisoning. I have never been able to find any parasites which look like the ones in the lesions which were quite large at the initial outbreak, a string of parasites hooked together. An old herbalist told me that fish parasites commonly appear that way and are the hardest to get under control. I would agree with that. These are smaller now, but they are still along the edge of every parasite lesion (the viral ones have now dried up with the use of acyclovir for a prolonged period of time). The ivermectin cannot seem to reach the parasites entirely, especially since their life cycles are not known. I believe at some stages their is chitin involved which protects them from these medications and that to kill them the worm-like stage must be present. I also think in my case this is why the morgellons is so hard to cure entirely. Perhaps it may be affecting others this way too. I don't know that everyone has the same parasites as Dr. Harvey was testing for them and found more than one type. Also there is one doctor who has used DEP to treat filarial type worms, but again even those patients who saw their morgellons symptoms improved from its use did not see all their symptoms go away.

Ciguatera is tasteless and there is no real test for it either (except I do know of one test available in Hawaii to test fish that is caught, but it has to be run on each fish). Doctors mostly go by symptoms in humans as usually the fish, if any remained, had been thrown away. There is no known cure past the immediate use of some mannitol:

"In the past, it was thought that there was nothing that could be done to treat this illness, but it is now possible to effectively treat ciguatera if diagnosed within the first 2-3 days after eating the contaminated fish. A physician can administer a drug called Mannitol intravenously to help flush the toxin from the body and prevent the long term recurrence of symptoms. After 2-3 days of exposure, avoidance of dehydration and certain foods (such as caffeine, nuts, and fish) may help prevent the recurrence of symptoms."

Ciguatera - Florida Poison Information Center-Miami - Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami

Ciguatera poison cases can be found in people in many places today since fish is now transported inland.

Originally Posted by tcmgpt13

I would just like to caution those who have been researching W.John Martin, MD, Phd. The following reference is from the CFIDS foundation:

Dr. John Martin stripped of License - National CFIDS Foundation Forum

Here is some research which is evidently based on reputable science and which discusses a named (not stealth or unidentified as claimed by Martin) virus associated with chronic fatigue:

Press Releases from The National CFIDS Foundation

"Potential Animal (Zoonotic) Virus Identified in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis and Epilepsy

Needham, MA May 31, 2006 -- Recent independent scientific research funded by the National CFIDS Foundation, Inc. (NCF) of Needham, MA provided preliminary confirmation of a new virus identified in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The Foundation's medical research dovetails with that completed to date by Cryptic Afflictions, LLC *, a private company.

Dr. Steven J. Robbins, virologist and Chief Executive Officer of Cryptic Afflictions, LLC has discovered a major neuropathogen identified as an RNA virus designated as Cryptovirus. Substantial clinical and molecular evidence indicates that this virus is involved in the development of neurological disorders that include Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) by the World Health Organization, Multiple Sclerosis (M.S.) and Idiopathic Epilepsy of unknown cause.

According to the company, "This previously undetected virus appears to be of significant importance to researchers looking for a cure to Multiple Sclerosis and many other neurological illnesses. Antibodies to the newly discovered virus were found in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood of over 90% of the patients tested with Multiple Sclerosis. It is believed that this newly discovered virus may prove to be responsible for a host of neurological disorders. Tests are currently being prepared for tissue samples of lesions within the brains of patients with Multiple Sclerosis. This will be the final round of tests before approaching the FDA for approval of the diagnostic tests."

Dr. Robbins' evidence includes the presence of virus-specific antibodies in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid of patients suffering from these disorders, the ability of the virus to cause virtually identical disease in experimentally-infected animals, and nucleotide sequence data that indicates that the virus is pandemic and represents a single virus species much like measles."

On this same foundation page is a discussion of chronic fatigue being associated with a neurotoxic found in some fish. Since I got this problem when I ate fish I found this idea interesting and I believe Niecy has posted something in the past about this too:

"Neurotoxin Discovered in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Needham, MA November 17, 2002 -- Research sponsored by the National CFIDS Foundation was formally announced at the International Symposium on Toxins and Natural Products in Okinawa, Japan on November 17-19, 2002 by Dr. Yo****sugi Hokama. The research, for the first time, discovered ciguatoxin, a potent neurotoxin, in the blood of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients.

"Chronic ciguatera poisoning has already been suggested as a scientific model for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)," stated Dr. Hokama. Ciguatoxins are potent, heat stabile, non-protein, lipophilic sodium channel activator toxins and are recognized as some of the most potent biological toxins known. They produce dramatic neurological manifestations, such as peripheral sensory or motor symptoms (including paresthesias, pain, burning, tingling, numbness), central symptoms such as headache, autonomic dysfunction and also affect multiple body systems (gastrointestinal, immune, hepatic, cardiovascular) and the muscles.

Many CFS patients in the study had higher levels of the toxin than the patients with cancer, hepatitis or acute ciguatera poisoning."

[jeanlong]

thanks...um about the parasites hooked together - do you have an image to share or to point me to? I am not sure about what you mean. And your doctor who diagnosed you 3 years later is different than the TCM person? Or did the TCM practitioner take 3 years to do the diagnosis? If fish is the problem how do the Japanese eat all that sushi and not have massive problems like this? Could you share images of the lesions that have the parasites on the edge that you mention? Again I'm not sure what you mean and would like to see.

dunno anything about ivermectin . . is that a western med to push parasites out that live in the intestines?

[tcmgpt13]

I think this post will answer most of your questions. No, I never took any pictures when they were so large as frankly I did not want to look at them and they quite frightened me at the time. It was bizarre to see them and they could rise up and flutter their "wings" though as I recall they did not have eyes, had j hooks which kept them together in a string which I at one point wound around a pencil and pulled out until at one point I gave a tug which was too hard. The string of parasites broke off. They were a very light beige in color. They do not look the same now and do not come out in that string, but as I understand from reading parasites change and adapt over many generations. It is now five and half years later, but they are still here in occasional lesions on my lower legs. IMO this is definitely a dampness disease (no surprise there as parasites love dampness).

Yes, ivermectin is a Western dewormer, commonly used for skin parasites (as well as others). My doctor had great faith in its total efficacy. Well, I did have some decent results when I got to use a bit more of this drug. I had forgotten the doctor was so miserly about giving me any when I first saw him, but over time, especially after I showed him the obvious track marks around some of my older black cancer salve treated lesion scars he relented and prescribed more of it. I still never went overboard using it as I feel it is very hard on the body. Nothing like taking something which attacks the nervous system when it's already been attacked nicely by the neurotoxins from the fish and maybe even the parasites themselves. There's many comments about ivermectins use if you do a search using ivermectin on the forum:

Originally Posted by tcmgpt13

Pat, I think I have seen these worms in my elbows at one point. The ones in my lips when I first became ill were little two inch jagged sharp whatevers shooting out something when I tried to get them out. They are the same ones I get now around the outer edge of the occasional lesions, at least the non herpes ones. The ones the doctor diagnosed as reactivated herpes lesions were on my back and have mostly dried up now with medication. These parasites look like something from a horror show, although now they are much smaller and more slender (dieting I guess). It is because these are so much more awful and painful that the worms I eventually saw (a year later) looked and felt like something a lot tamer to me. Itchy where they came out. Nothing like the sharp broken glass feeling of whatever this other is. These sharp ones seem to emit a toxin which causes pain to the nerves.

Another aside, ivermectin did not do that much when I finally tried it about 3 years after coming down with this. I only got two doses from the doctor to be taken a week apart. From that I got my latest lesion and "I can't give you any more ivermectin, it is too soon." This is from the doctor who thinks it is just a herpes 1, 6 viral reactivation--ha I could tell him, not so, not even close doc. I think maybe all the herbs I have used may have led to the rather dismal reaction I did get, which just led to another solitary lesion but did not move any of the parasites from it. Leaves it to me again, but then I guess we are used to that.

I think that much of the worm like whatevers have been pulled out with my black herbal salves, all except these jagged parasites which come accompanied by and spread courtesy of the goo they generate (or find in the body from toxins or whatever it is that busy little parasites do). These are also J hooked beasts, which look like nothing I can find anyone else posting photos online. Nor have I seen what they could be in parasite photos. I think it is something found in fish, though of that I am not certain, just a guess as I got sick after eating fish (cooked I may add). Eating that fish (grouper) also gave me symptoms of ciguatera poisoning which can reactivate viruses in the body. This is according to my doctor. All quit complex, but I plan to ask my doctor to contemplate looking at what other doctors (if I can get past the I went to such and such school so I know what to do syndrome--yeah and how long ago was that?) are doing with the dewormers and morgellons. One shot with ivermectin just ain't gonna do it. Don't we all just wish?