Posted 3/11/2018 3:55 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Judy, thanks for posting.
Not all autoimmune disorders, but the idea in general applies and most likely not just one type of bacteria.
I happened to be lucky and had access to the full study as we have a subscription a work for other non-biology purposes. If it helps or interests anyone, for the vaccine they used heat killed bacteria of the same type that translocated across the intestinal barrier in mice. What's interesting is after vaccination it prevented translocation across the mucosal barrier, but the vaccine had to be specific to this bacteria, not other types of bacteria.
It seems there is some relevance to the MAP Vaccine, Triple ABX an Qu (?) Biologics all in one study. If I read it right treatment with ABX (Vancomycin) resulted in lower autoantibodies and pro-inflammatory T-cells, which corresponded with a decrease in bacteria in the small intestinal tissue.
They make this statement at the end - "Thus, pathobiont-specific treatment can abrogate host autoimmune processes without needing to suppress the immune system, which can lead to systemic adverse events in current clinical practice." Which many will identify with.
The bacteria in the study is E. gallinarum. They then tested tissues samples from people with SLE and autoimmune hepatitis and were able to isolate this particular bacteria from the majority of patients.
In regards to autoimmune they state this:
"Our findings show that the Gram-positive gut pathobiont E. gallinarum translocates, as a result of gut barrier breakdown, into systemic organs in autoimmune-prone hosts to drive autoimmune pathogenesis (fig. S20). Translocating bacteria may not only skew T helper cell differentiation but may also directly act on colonized tissues, such as the liver, to induce autoantigens, ERV proteins, cytokines, and other autoimmune-promoting factors."
The whole thing was really interesting really, but not really easy to understand some aspects.
Anyway, I know in the MAP realm there has been suggestion that bacteria in the blood/lymph can trigger autoimmune reactions, but this is the first study I have read or come across that demonstrates the issue and follows it up with finding bacteria in people (patients with SLE and autoimmune hepatitis).
I guess they stopped short of trying to treat the human patients so who knows really, but maybe they will at some point soon. Would be amazing to see these people get better if it's possible.