HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Deficiency of Immune System Peacekeeper Pinpointed in Mice as Cause of Ulcerative Colitis

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
1 2
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 10/10/2007 2:36 AM (GMT 0)
This whole communicable effect thing really freaks me out. I am definitely going to bring this up at my GI appt. in November. If anyone else finds out more about it, please post.
Posted 10/10/2007 3:06 AM (GMT 0)

Hi -

My husband was diagnosed with UC a year before I started having symptoms and received my diagnosis.  We had been together for 5 years or so at that point.  I have always wondered about the communicable disease angle...

Kris2336

Posted 11/15/2007 1:57 AM (GMT 0)
Has anyone had a chance to discuss this article with his/her GI yet? I am meeting with mine tomorrow and might bring this up if I get time.
Posted 11/15/2007 3:32 AM (GMT 0)
The most encouraging thing to me is the amount of research being done. With the relatively limited number of people affected (compared to some other conditions) and the fact that IBD isn't "sexy," there used to be a dearth of research. Now that's turned around and more and more discoveries are being made.

I'm convinced that all of the "auto-immune" diseases are just branches on the same tree. I think it probably takes a variety of factors, including a genetic predisposition, for the diseases to develop, so a variety of approaches to treatment will be needed.
Posted 11/15/2007 3:32 PM (GMT 0)
While interesting, this article confirms what we already know, and many doctors are still adamant about - probiotics ARE important, there IS a PATHOGEN involved in etiology of the disease and it's NOT auto-immune. The real question is what causes T-bet deficiency? Is it genetic or acquired? Or both?

But I agree, this new research gives hope that a cure may be found in the near future. I feel that the anti TNF-a drugs are a step in the wrong direction, it's just messing with the immune system on a much more sophisticated level than brute-force corticosteroids or immunosuppression drugs, what we should be researching is getting T-bet levels up, and the condition will resolve itself... That said, the mouse model is still a far cry from the real thing, and I think much more research on actual humans is needed to confirm that this is the real cause of UC.
Posted 11/15/2007 4:02 PM (GMT 0)
Not auto-immune? That's a new one to me-- I think the evidence is overwhelming that there's an auto-immune aspect to UC. I for example definitely benefit somewhat from the pig whipworm eggs (TSO), though to get an effect I have to take an incredibly expensive (and unsustainable) double-dose of the stuff; and the main effect of these sorts of helminth therapies is to dampen over-active, disregulated immunity.

I completely agree though that even if the "communicable" aspect of this study is a red-herring, it could spur more research at least. I am kind of scared though that we with UC couold be labeled as health hazards if this thing took off, like those with TB, and become ostracized for what may be at best an extremely tenuous communicability compared to classic contagions.
Posted 11/15/2007 5:12 PM (GMT 0)
Auto-immunity refers to a condition where ones own immune system "malfunctions" and starts attacking healthy tissues with no apparent external causes. If we have a pathogen then it isn't an auto-immune reaction. This study suggest that the pathogens are bacteria which cross the mucosal barrier, facilitated by the lack of T-bet regulatory protein.
Posted 11/15/2007 5:21 PM (GMT 0)
DocGonzo-- ok by that definition you are right. However, isn't it still auto-immune in the sense that most everyone ("normies" as I call them) who also has those pathogens, does not react, i..e it is almost certainly a combination of environment and malfunctioning immune system in the case of IBD. Not trying to split hairs on definitions, but it seems to me that almost all the suspected pathogens involved in IBD normally cause no symptoms in the bulk of the population.
Posted 11/15/2007 5:31 PM (GMT 0)
Isn't there evidence that those who do end up with UC may also have a genetic defect that causes UC when a pathogen is introduced in the body and that is what differentiates who will get UC and who won't? So if your spouse and you both have that genetic defect, then if you are a carrier of a pathogen, pass it on to your spouse they could get it too?
Posted 11/15/2007 6:31 PM (GMT 0)
There's no other definition. If we have a known pathogen we can't call something an auto-immune disease. Doesn't matter what mechanisms of infection are involved. As for the T-bet deficiency - what causes it? I suppose we'll get that answer soon enough, but my guess is it will turn out to be acquired deficiency, not genetic.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
12