posted
An interesting article, but troubling and validating. ___________________________________________
She pulled off 2 big disease findings
By David Wahlberg April 19, 2008
Gabriele Zu Rhein has twice done what few scientists do once: make key discoveries about a new disease.
But that second discovery, of a rare brain disease that she reported in December at the age of 87, is just one of the remarkable things about Zu Rhein 's life.
Zu Rhein, a native of Germany, spent her childhood playing in castles. Her father was property manager for King Ludwig of Bavaria.
She studied medicine in Munich during World War II while the city was being bombed by Allied planes. After the war, she worked as a pathologist at a U.S. Army Hospital.
In 1954, she took a job teaching pathology at UW-Madison. Though she retired in 1995, she has continued reporting to her campus office to conduct research and read and write scholarly articles.
"I want to keep informed, " Zu Rhein said recently from her office, crammed with new and tattered books and journals but void of a computer (there is an electric typewriter). "It 's just my lifestyle. I 'm a very curious person. "
Zu Rhein reported her first discovery in 1964. She found the virus responsible for a disease that had been identified not long before: progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. The brain disease mainly affects people with compromised immune systems, including those with cancer, transplants or AIDS.
She became known as an expert on PML. In 1991, a doctor from Neenah sent her brain tissue from a 56-year-old Wisconsin woman who had apparently died of PML. He asked her to confirm the cause of death.
But when Zu Rhein looked at the tissue under a microscope, she didn 't see the telltale signs of PML. Instead, she saw heaps of membrane-less bodies eating away at the linings of tiny blood vessels.
"I had never seen those before, " she said. "It was bizarre. "
Zu Rhein painstakingly analyzed the tissue for months, using an electron microscope. The infectious agent was too large for a virus, she concluded. It appeared to be a mycoplasma, a one-cell bacterium known to invade the lungs and cause walking pneumonia.
But this mycoplasma was attacking blood vessels in the brain.
She wanted to alert the scientific world. But she hadn 't heard of other cases and didn 't want to publish a report about just one case.
Eventually, Dr. James Powers, a pathologist at the University of Rochester in New York, received tissue from two similar patients -- a 41-year-old man from South Carolina and a 67-year-old man from Georgia.
The men, like the Wisconsin woman, had gradually lost their ability to walk, talk and eat before dying. One was thought to have Lyme disease.
Powers and Zu Rhein compared notes and found that the tissue from the men was similar to that from the Wisconsin woman.
In December, they published their findings about the three cases in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology.
Dr. Raymond Sobel, a pathologist at Stanford University who is editor of the journal, called the report a "significant contribution " to the field.
The findings "are very strongly suggestive of something new, " he said. "Obviously, more cases and more molecular diagnostic work is needed, but that is how new diseases are generally discovered. "
Zu Rhein, who turned 88 this month, plans to keep studying the mysterious disease.
"I will probably not live to see this clarified, " she said. "But I 'm happy that I have been so lucky in my research. "
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-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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Definitely disturbing considering how hard mycoplasma is to test for and treat and the high number of Lyme patients who have this coinfection.
The most recent issue of The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients has an article by Dr G N which gives some charts showing number of Lyme patients who test positive for Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma etc. Many of course had not just one, but two or three coinfections.
Wonder if they also looked for Lyme in those brain samples?
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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especially seeing as 90% of my symptoms are neurological and can barley walk and still no one really knows what is wrong with me....
Uh oh.....I almost wish I hadnt read this....
-------------------- "You'll be surprised to know how far you can go from the point you thought it was the end" Posts: 946 | From Massachusetts | Registered: Apr 2008
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posted
Sorry it is a bit scary and ugly. However, we don't have the specifics about this particular pathogen...but it is tempting to draw parallels.
For example, a few weeks ago, I had a massively sharp pain in my temple after starting a new combination of antibiotics. It came & went for several weeks, then vanished.
I think it is all too easy to conclude that the CSF is carrying these bad boys to my "wetware!?" Then again, it wouldn't be the first time unwanted bugs took up residence in a human brain!
Sorry for the dark humor. It's my way of dealing with the surreal biology of infection.
-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Can anyone tell me what the symptoms of mycoplasma are?
Julie
Posts: 209 | From Montreal, QC, CAN | Registered: Jan 2008
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luvs2ride
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8090
posted
Unexpected,
I have positive test for mycoplasma, so I now how you feel.
In addition to anything your doctor is doing for you, take garlic. It is a strong natural antibiotic and antiviral.
I try to drink fresh vegetable juice every day and I always include a clove or two of fresh garlic and ginger.
You can also buy garlic supplements, I just feel fresh is best. Cooked garlic has no medicinal value.
Luvs
PS: I do this every day and no one can smell garlic on me. I think I do smell right after I drink it, but by the time I get to work, the smell is gone.
-------------------- When the Power of Love overcomes the Love of Power, there will be Peace. Posts: 3038 | From america | Registered: Oct 2005
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tickled1
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14257
posted
I keep testing positive for myco too so this is very scary. I had a spinal tap today to look for it so that it is taken more seriously.
I need to find a doctor in or around MA that is myco literate but not having good luck finding feedback.
My lyme diagnosis is clinical. I am positive on band 41 Igg and Igm but Myco is through the roof. Negative for all other co-infections but this is all through Quest.
I wonder if I don't have Lyme but it's all Myco. I also have very high EBV (over 2000). Don't know what to think. I did have a tick bite in 2000.
Posts: 2541 | From Northeast | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
Y'all, there are many, many different kinds of mycoplasma. It's just a name that describes a super-small class of cell-wall deficient bacteria. They do actually have cell walls, they are just different than other conventional bacteria - in terms of the very thin cell wall. Because of these characteristics, they can ``act'' like a virus and insinuate themselves almost anywhere in the body. And because they do, they continue to do damage to us and cause all kinds of nasty, chronic health problems.
Particularly this one: The Pathogenesis And Treatment Of Mycoplasmal Infections, by G.L. Nicolson et al., Antimicrob. Infect. Dis. Newsl. 1999; 17(11)
Can any of you be more specific with regard to which mycobacteria you tested positive for?
-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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jamescase20
Unregistered
posted
So does this mycoplama respond and die from the tetra class abx? Doxy and minocin?
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posted
Per the Dr B mycoplasma generally respond to the meds used for Bart -- usually a fluroquinolone or Rifampin plus a macrolide.
I heard him speak at a support group meeting. He said that after closing his practice he reviewed all 11,000 plus patient files. His conclusion was that most patients who didn't get well had untreated or undertreated Bartonella and/or mycoplasma.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Good points about the "right" treatment for various mycoplasmas -- they are not all the same thing...
-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Some questions about mycoplasma testing: as there are many kinds of mycoplasma, do the tests test for them all? How accurate are the tests? What tests get done and who does them?
Posts: 13171 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
mycoplasma fermentans, i have been told, can cause many psych symptoms including ocd and manic impulsivity, ect.
it's the one that is treated with "cyclines", and/or rifampin or levaquin.
then there is the question of a BLO posed by dr. b, thought to be more like mycoplasma than bartonella hensalae.
my kid had a positive pcr for m.fermentans a few years ago - since mdl lab has become so very weak at picking up anything for the past couple of years, doc has run a round of other tests out there for both bartonella and mycoplasma; antibody, antigen, western blot and fry; for a current diagnosis.
obviously the odds are not with us, but hoping if it's there, we'll get some clue on paper.
mo
Posts: 8337 | From the other shore | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
I am really sorry that I cannot suggest any reliable labs that patients can trust for various kinds of mycoplasmic bacteria testing. This, IMO, may explain why so many people continue to be chronically ill. Mo, thanks for the tidbit about MFI (mycoplasma fermentans incognito, I presume), but I am shocked that any lab can test for that!
I was lucky in a terrible way -- I argued with my PCP for ANY kind of mycoplasma testing and they found mycoplasma pneumonia.
After that, the record of that particular visit disappeared from the hospital medical record system. If that was not enough, he told me he could not and did not know how to treat the infection.
The emoticon below is perfect!
-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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This poor kid! But at least they identified the mycoplasmas and are treating him with some interesting remedies.
-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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i've been checking into bartonella treatment with olive leaf extract as recommended by some llmd's, wondering if that can also be effective against mycoplasmas, and found this interesting article.
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