Autoimmune disease articles

[bunnie]

 link to recent research article in autoimmune disease.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_44202.html

[LIGA girl]

See footnote 1 on this article for some research regarding DHEA and SLE (lupus)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydroepiandrosterone

[bunnie]

Questions and answers about Autoimmunity
http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/autoimmune/autoimmunity.htm
The componants of the immune system, and their role in the body's defence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigen
NB. An autoimmune response which occurs in anyone with an (auto=greek for self)-immune disease, is different from an immune response. 

[bunnie]

http://autoimmunedisease.suite101.com/blogs.cfm
I found this exert from the above link particulary interesting. It mentions that Vit D is deficient in cases of autoimmune disease.
May 22, 2007

The Importance of Vitamin D

Posted by  Elaine Moore

Vitamin D is important for a healty immune system as well as proper bone metabolism and muscle strength; blood tests are used to determine the need for supplements.


Several studies have shown a link between higher levels of Vitamin D and a lower incidence of multiple sclerosis. Similarly, studies have shown low blood levels of vitamin D are associated with numerous autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D offers benefits for autoimmune diseases because of its ability to influence T cell development and inactivate Natural Killer cells. Besides its beneficial effects on immunity, which include cancer prevention, vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, ensuring proper bone metabolism, and it has also been shown to improve muscle strength, particularly leg muscle strength. The question of how much vitamin D is enough is of prime importance for patients with autoimmune diseases.

Sources of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is absorbed through the skin from sunlight or from supplements and foods fortified with vitamin D. The body then converts it into 25-OH vitamin D and then into the active hormone 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D (1,25OH-D).


The recommended daily dose of vitamin D is 200-600 IU.
The optimal blood range for 1, 25 hydroxy vitamin D is 75-125 nmol/L.
Studies show that most people in the United States do not get adequate vitamin D, especially in the winter months. Studies show that the action of vitamin D in the body also depends on adequate sources of calcium from a normal to high calcium diet.

Because of the widespread use of sunscreen and a trend towards limited exposure to sunlight, the incidence of vitamin D deficiency has reached epidemic levels. Blood tests are available for measuring vitamin D levels with tests for 1, 25 hydroxy vitamin D. This test is necessary for determining if a vitamin D deficiency exists. Serum levels in the optimal range have been associated with improved bone health and muscle strength, as well as protection against numerous cancers,


The recommended dose of vitamin D3 supplementation is 800-1,000 IU daily.
However, some people need at least 5,000 IU vitamin D3 daily to bring levels into the optimal range.
According to the Life Extension Foundation, toxicity is unlikely at daily intake levels less than 10,000 IU (250 mcg).


Vitamin D Toxicity

Blood tests are important to guard against toxicity. Excess vitamin D can cause dangerous blood calcium levels, poor muscle and nerve function. Long-term elevations of vitamin D can increase the risk of kidney stone. Patients taking extremely high doses of vitamin D should be monitored for signs and symptoms of toxicity, including nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness, heart arrhythmias, and elevated levels of cholesterol, calcium or liver enzymes. People with kidney disease and patients using digoxin or other heart medications should check with their doctor before using vitamin D.

Vitamin D and the Immune System

The highest concentration of vitamin D is found in the immature immune cells of the thymus and the mature CD-8 T Lymphocytes. Studies show that vitamin D3 supplements can either prevent or markedly suppress experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type I diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease.

With adequate calcium, vitamin D stimulates transforming growth factor-beta1 and interleukin-4 production, which in turn may suppress inflammatory T-cell activity.

Resources:

Hector F. Deluca and Margherita T. Cantorna, Vitamin D: Its role and uses in immunology, FASEB J. 15, 2579-2585, 2001.

Tiesha D. Johnson, Guarding Against the Dangers of Vitamin D Deficiency, Life Extension Journal, May 2007: 43-50.

Janet Raloff, Vitamin Boost, From muscle strength to immunity, scientists find new vitamin D benefits, Science News Online, Oct 9, 2004, accessed May 8, 2007

[bunnie]

Diagnosis of Autoimmune disease. Note important factors in Bold.

http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/autoimmune/autoimmunity.htm

Medical tests—No one test will show that you have an autoimmune disease. But doctors may find clues in a blood sample. For example, people with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis often have certain autoantibodies in their blood. Autoantibodies are blood proteins formed against the body’s own parts.

Not all people with these diseases have these autoantibodies. And some people without autoimmune disease do have them. So blood tests alone may not always help. But if a person has disease symptoms and autoantibodies, the doctor can be more sure of a diagnosis.

The key is patience. Your doctor may be able to diagnose your condition quickly based on your history, exam, and test results. But the process often takes time. It may take several visits to find out exactly what’s wrong and the best way to treat it.

[bunnie]

Regarding Infection in persons immunocompromised.

Immunocompromised patients have alterations in phagocytic, cellular or humoral immunity = (antibody production, and all the accessory processes that accompany it)  that increase both the risk of infection and the ability to combat infection.

Immunocompromised patients are vulnerable to a broad-range of infectious agents and, due to the state of immunosuppression, presentation will be atypical =(not conforming to type) and the course fulminant.=(Occurring suddenly, rapidly, and with great severity or intensity, usually of pain.)

Commensals such as Candida and other fungi, and viruses such as cytomegalovirus, can lead to serious infection. 
Broad-spectrum antibiotic use increases the risk of secondary fungal infections.

Skin and mucous membrane infections can be very widespread and highly visible.  In contrast, it is often difficult to identify the site of infection.  Signs of inflammation other than fever are often mild or absent and, in patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy, the side-effects of the treatment may mimic infection eg. pain or mucositis.

http://www.bsac.org.uk/pyxis/Immunocompromised%20patient/Principles/Principles%20of%20management%20of%20infection%20in%20the%20immunocompromised%20patientF.htm

[bunnie]

Very simple and Fun explanation of how the cells of the immune system work.
http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/immunity/immune-overview.html

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/immunity/immune-detail.html

This is a game...
http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/immunity/index.html
and another DNA game
http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/dna_double_helix/dnahelix.html

[bunnie]

not sure if I have already posted this here or not, so just in case I haven't...
http://ww2.arthritis.org/research/researchupdate/04march_april/exploring.asp

[CalamityJane]

Hi all:

My current and second bout of sinusitis, this time w/bronchial involvement is making me wonder now that my PPP is in remission if my immune system has gone from overdrive back to a more normal state.

Any thoughts anybody. I find this quite difficult to understand w/my somewhat challenged mentality, so hope this is not a foolish question.

Jane

[bunnie]

hi jane, If you have had no signs whatsoever of your ppp then, I think you may have had or are going through a period of remission. It is this that confuses people with autoimmune diseases, because they are idiopathic, which means they are spontaneous. Remissions unlike waxing and waning, are total, the disease disappears quite naturally, and can last from a few months to many years, sometimes as with some children, it disappears altogether at puberty. My own disease went into remission for 18 years! and was far more severe than the first time. Some, depending on the disease, gradually "burn out" , for want of a better expression.
PPP I understand is quite rare and the rarer the disease the less likely that bacteria could be an enviromental factor involved in this, as we are exposed constantly to bacteria. As we have discussed before, it is a combination of mutated genes, (of which I understand there are in some cases as many as 30) other multigenous factors, along with either an exogenous factor and/or alone. endogenous factors which cause these conditions. Basically what I am saying is that the sinusitis bears no relation to your ppp, that is an immune response to an exogenous or non-self factor, whereas PPP is an abnormal immune response to endogenous or self factors.
One can have an allergy to something, or even just a reaction to something and will have an immune response to that, and still have an autoimmune response going on at the same time. This is because the genes involved in dealing with the allergy or reaction, are normal for you , whereas others in the presence of self factors, (or even stimulated by an allergy in some cases) are mutated, one at least in you, carrying the direct hereditary predisposition to Psoriasis, so once stimulated, if that gene is involved, you will get psoriasis or one of it's phenotypes. (subclasses) With autoimmune diseases the regulatory T cells are the ones involved in intense research, because these, having been "given the wrong command "
are unable to act, their job being to regulate the immune response and switch it off. I will be explaining all of this on my blog. If you have had no signs of your PPP at all for over a year I would take that as remission personally. Hope this makes sense Jane!
fondly Bunnie

[CalamityJane]

Hi bunnie:

Basically what I am saying is that the sinusitis bears no relation to your ppp, that is an immune response to an exogenous or non-self factor

Darn it bunnie I was hoping to be able to explain all this illness I've had this year. I started the Doxy again today. I couldn't manage to throw it off on my own. Started in throat, down bronchial tubes, nasty cough. Spent much of last night coughing & felt rough enough this morning to know I needed help.

Was hoping I could say my immune system had calmed down, therefore, I was more susceptible to virus' etc.

The PPP is in remission, (thank you Cellulitis & Doxy) I'm sure. All the time I had it I didn't once have a sniffle, cold, or anything.

Thanks bunnie........

[sallyann]

I just wanted to jump in here because everyone in my family has been sick with the crud.  The majority of people at work also have had a bad flu.  Several grandchildern also have had the flu recently. I have PPP and can't understand why I have not gotten it yet.  I hope I don't, but wondered if my body is too busy working on the PPP that it blocked the virus that is going around. 

I don't understand the autoimmune system yet but thanks to the forum I am learning.

Sally

[LIGA girl]

My current and second bout of sinusitis, this time w/bronchial involvement is making me wonder now that my PPP is in remission if my immune system has gone from overdrive back to a more normal state.

Jane, the last three winters before I got my skin illness I seemed to have no resistance to winter flus and had them constantly during those 3 winters. When I got a major autoimmune disease I wondered if there was a connection. And since having the skin disease I have been almost free of the flu ... had one bout last year made worse by being on immunesuppressants but that is all.

LG

[bunnie]

The autoimmune response is a response to self molecules. An immune response is a response to non self exogenous factors, that is why one can have two different things going on, say having a cold or flu-like symptoms. It isn't a case of having two different immune systems , but a case of the genetics involved, ie the specific genes which are involved. A virus can stimulate the predisposition in some cases, but that virus would be identified, and would still manifest symptoms just as an allergy does. I have had awful colds and other infections and still had the autoimmune disease manifesting, and had the same when I was in remission.
Basically, from what I understand anyway, (and I will be posting a link to my blog soon concerning this, that's if it is allowed of course to do that; I just need to finish presenting it, ) A protein of self, transcribes the stored information in the genes and presents that information as a protein. As the gene is mutated, so is the information transcribed from it, therefore every subsequent immune cell produced is also mutated and "acts" differently than it should, within that specific response, and the other cells (regT cells) which regulate the immune response , also fail to regulate properly and are unable (apart from other things) to switch the response "off" as normal. In order for these mutated genes to be stimulated in the first place, it takes a combination of multigenous and endogenous factors ( such as hormones, or molecular mimicry, there are others  ) and possibly exogenous factors in some cases, such as viruses or drugs etc. Another point is that say a person had a nail in their foot,  the complement system would be there in a trance stimulating inflammation to prevent infection entering the body. The complement system (the first part of the immune defence to act) is very rapid to answer and very deadly, it also assists antibodies in fighting invaders. The genes and immune cells involved in this response may be fine, and they don't prevent or stop another abnormal response involving other genes and the subsequent production of cells from that abnormal response from occuring. In other words cells could be fighting two seperate invasions of non-self factors at the same time, say a nail in the foot and a head cold occuring at the same time, or an abnormal response and a normal one going on at the same time. They are unrelated.
Its like sending a battalion of an army to fight in IraQ and another to Afghanistan. My geography is hopeless by the way, so don't pull me up on that!
Forgot to add LG, probably the reason that you have not had this flu symptom since getting Liga, is that you were on high dose steroids, (still are?) also immunosuppressants although they suppress the immune system making it more vunerable to infection, they are never the less suppressing all the cells involved in the immune response particulary inflammation, a key factor in head colds.
Bunnie

[CalamityJane]

Hi all:

Just as I thought I was getting a grasp of this, I'm soooo lost (again)....My head is thicker than 'normal' today Bunnie But I do understand the difference between autoimmune and immune! Got that! Yippee.....

Jane, the last three winters before I got my skin illness I seemed to have no resistance to winter flus and had them constantly during those 3 winters. When I got a major autoimmune disease I wondered if there was a connection. And since having the skin disease I have been almost free of the flu ... had one bout last year made worse by being on immunesuppressants but that is all.

LG

Hi LG: The 3 years before my PPP I had no colds or flu and nothing while the PPP was active. Even though I had Doxy last year it was not for sinus/bronchial things. Don't know why that would be as son is often (it seems) full of it (colds I mean)! I've not caught them.

Jane

[bunnie]

Don't know why that would be as son is often (it seems) full of it (colds I mean)!

Hi jane, maybe because your son is more susceptible than you regarding these bugs. My brother and I were serious as kids, one getting better the other starting, terrible symptoms , streaming inflamed eyes, raw nose, streaming nose, real "coryza", (which means boiling over from the head!" describes it exactly!) Mum and my two other siblings never got a thing! My siblings still don't, whereas my brother and I are serious, my poor brother getting terrible asthma. My son too has this problem, coryza and asthma, bless him, I am sorry to say, it is so miserable.
fondly Bunnie

[CalamityJane]

Hi Bunnie........

which means boiling over from the head!" describes it exactly!)

That's exactly how I feel, but hadn't heard that word before.

I get it now -- came to me as I sneezed along walking Rolo -- my cold/sinus thing is an immune response to whatever...........the PPP is autoimmune, not related.

Right.............

Jane

[LIGA girl]

An overview of the latest treatment I have had (rituximab) and its application to skin diseases: (See especially the last page with the grey box for a good summary.)

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2230.2006.02151.x?cookieSet=1

[bunnie]

http://www.cureautoimmunity.org/Common%20Cause.htm

http://www.cureautoimmunity.org/common%20cause%20white%20paper%2012-05.htm

[bunnie]

A link to my blog on disorders of the immune system, which includes all disorders inluding autoimmunity.
http://wassail-allthatilove.blogspot.com/2008/03/disorders-of-immune-system-immune.html
bunnie