Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses; Genetics
Article Date: 28 Apr 2009 - 3:00 PDT
Autoantibodies ``may be created in response to bacterial DNA''
Autoimmune diseases have long been regarded as illnesses in which the immune system creates autoantibodies to attack the body itself.
But today, researchers at the California non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation (ARF) explain that the antibodies observed in autoimmune disease actually result from alteration of human genes and gene products by hidden bacteria.
Not long ago, scientists believed they had located all bacteria capable of causing human disease, But DNA discoveries in the last decade have led the NIH Human Microbiome Project to now estimate that as many as 90% of cells in the body are bacterial in origin.
Many of these bacteria, which have yet to be named and characterized, have been implicated in the progression of autoimmune disease.
In a paper published in Autoimmunity Reviews, the ARF team, under the guidance of Professor Trevor Marshall of Murdoch University, Western Australia,
has explained how Homo sapiens must now be viewed as a superorganism in which a plethora of bacterial genomes a metagenome work in concert with our own.
Marshall and team contend that the human genome can no longer be studied in isolation.
"When analyzing a genetic pathway, we must study how bacterial and human genes interact, in order to fully understand any process related to the human superorganism," states Marshall.
"Especially since some of these pathways contribute to the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease."
For example, the team notes that the single gene ACE has an impact on myocardial infarction, renal tubular dysgenesis, Alzheimer's, the progression of SARS, diabetes mellitus, and sarcoidosis,
yet recently ACE has been shown to be affected by the common species Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.
Found in yogurt, these species are often considered to be innocuous or "friendly."
"No one would argue that these species aren't present in the human body, yet there has been inadequate study of how these 'friendly' species affect disease," states Amy Proal, the paper's lead author.
"What we thought were autoantibodies generated against the body itself can now be understood as antibodies directed against the hidden bacteria," states Marshall.
"In autoimmune disease, the immune system is not attacking itself. It is protecting the body from pathogens."
To validate their lab discoveries, Marshall's team has been conducting an observational clinical trial of more than 500 autoimmune patients
and reported at the recent 6th International Congress on Autoimmunity that antibacterial therapies targeted at these hidden microbes are capable of reversing autoimmune disease processes.
posted
Very interesting, thanks for posting. I assume by "antibacterial therapies" he means minocin and the other antibiotics he uses for sarcoiodosis?
-------------------- sunnymalibu Posts: 192 | From california | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
"In autoimmune disease, the immune system is not attacking itself. It is protecting the body from pathogens."
I believe THAT! (seriously)
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
Thanks for posting this. I was just telling my sister today (who has several autoimmune illnesses) that I think most autoimmune diseases are caused by infection.
Do you have a link to the article? I'd like to send it to her.
Thanks, Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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D Bergy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9984
posted
I agree 100% with their conclusions. Using that premise is how I eliminated my symptoms from Crohn's disease.
I am skeptical of Marshall's take on vitamin D as it concerns Lyme disease.
Now if we only could kill those cysts, it would end Chronic Lyme disease.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Dan
Posts: 2924 | From Minnesota | Registered: Aug 2006
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treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
Marshall huh I said this years before he even thought it . Guy makes me mad.ooo look at me iam electrical engineer phd Call me Dr!! Which I would for phd in engineering NOT MEDICAL
I truly believe there is no such thing as autoimmune. Its always a responce to a pathogen.
-------------------- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Remember Iam not a Doctor Just someone struggling like you with Tick Borne Diseases.
posted
Absolutely agree 100%. Uveitis is classed as an auto immune disease yet I control it solely with antibiotics. I will cure it with antibiotics.
-------------------- Pos BB and Bart(Q & H IGG pos) Began treat 1 year after start of illness. Diagnosed Feb 2007. Posts: 648 | From Ireland | Registered: Jan 2007
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lymeparfait
Unregistered
posted
Autoimmune disease in the era of the metagenome. Proal AD, Albert PJ, Marshall T.
Georgetown University.
Studies of autoimmune disease have focused on the characteristics of the identifiable antibodies. But as our knowledge of the genes associated with the disease states expands, we understand that humans must be viewed as superorganisms in which a plethora of bacterial genomes -- a metagenome - work in tandem with our own. The NIH has estimated that 90% of the cells in Homo sapiens are microbial and not human in origin. Some of these microbes create metabolites that interfere with the expression of genes associated with autoimmune disease. Thus, we must re-examine how human gene transcription is affected by the plethora of microbial metabolites. We can no longer assume that antibodies generated in autoimmune disease are created solely as autoantibodies to human DNA. Evidence is now emerging that the human microbiota accumulates during a lifetime, and a variety of persistence mechanisms are coming to light. In one model, obstruction of VDR nuclear-receptor-transcription prevents the innate immune system from making key antimicrobials, allowing the microbes to persist. Genes from these microbes must necessarily impact disease progression. Recent efforts to decrease this VDR-perverting microbiota in patients with autoimmune disease have resulted in reversal of autoimmune processes. As the NIH Human Microbiome Project continues to better characterize the human metagenome, new insights into autoimmune pathogenesis are beginning to emerge.
PMID: 19393196 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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