• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

New KDM, Lombardi research--HERV

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in the Duodenum of Individuals Diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Are Uniquely Immunoreactive to Antibodies
to Human Endogenous Retroviral Proteins

in vivo 27: 177-188 (2013)

KENNY L. DE MEIRLEIR, SVETLANA F. KHAIBOULLINA, MARC FRÉMONT, JAN HULSTAERT, ALBERT A. RIZVANOV, ANDRÁS PALOTÁS and VINCENT C. LOMBARDI


http://www.wpinstitute.org/news/docs/invivo27_177-188_2013.pdf



An increasing body of evidence suggests that disruptions in the gut may contribute to the induction of neuroinflammation. Therefore, reports of human endogenous retroviral (HERV) expression in association with neuroinflammatory diseases prompted us to investigate the gut of individuals with ME for the presence of HERV proteins. In eight out of 12 individuals with ME, immunoreactivity to HERV proteins was observed in duodenal biopsies. In contrast, no immunoreactivity was detected in any of the eight
controls.
 

Dan_USAAZ

Senior Member
Messages
174
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Would the results of this research possibly help explain why some ME patients have improved on antiretroviral medication? If I understand correctly, antiretroviral medication can inhibit the expression of HERVs.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Can someone give us the layman's summary -- what does this mean for us?
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
Would the results of this research possibly help explain why some ME patients have improved on antiretroviral medication? If I understand correctly, antiretroviral mediction can inhibit the expression of HERVs.

potentially yes. I dont know anything about antivirals, but if they can inhibit expression of HERV proteins then yes, I think so, potentially.
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
Can someone give us the layman's summary -- what does this mean for us?

There will be an article on the main page at some point in the next day or two which will summarise it.
But if it stands up, and if what is reported was confirmed to be causal for the disease, rather than a knock on effect, then it would mean that we have an autoimmune disease. More than that it would mean that the autoimmunity was caused by HERVs. ME/CFS would become very sexy very quickly, like it was for a while with the whole XMRV thing, but hopefully without falling flat!
 
Messages
1
Location
Bend Oregon
Would the results of this research possibly help explain why some ME patients have improved on antiretroviral medication? If I understand correctly, antiretroviral medication can inhibit the expression of HERVs.
Dreyfus used them to treat MS patients and they have HERV expression too. I would say its very likely.
 

Daffodil

Senior Member
Messages
5,875
Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in the Duodenum of
Individuals Diagnosed with Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis Are Uniquely Immunoreactive
to Antibodies to Human Endogenous Retroviral
Proteins

Journal: in vivo
International Journal of Experimental
and Clinical Pathophysiology and Drug
Reseach - March-April 2013; 27 (2)

Authors: KENNY L. DE MEIRLEIR3,*,
SVETLANA F. KHAIBOULLINA1,*,
MARC FREMONT4, JAN HULSTAERT5,
ALBERT A. RIZVANOV6,
ANDRASPALOTAS7 and VINCENT C.
LOMBARDI1,2 A. RIZVANOV6,
ANDRASPALOTAS7 and VINCENT C.
LOMBARDI1,2
 

Seven7

Seven
Messages
3,444
Location
USA
Don't we all carry HERV, even healthy people? What does it mean in CFS context? I don't understand this findings. Also is every CFS or a subgroup?
 
Messages
15,786
My understanding is that basically we all have HERV - virus bits that have become integrated with human DNA as we evolved. It's really ancient stuff and completely normal.

It sounds like they're saying the problem is that we have too many of a type of immune cell (Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells) in our guts, plus we have a lot of them which are involved in an autoimmune reaction against some of the HERV proteins.

Beyond this not much is certain, but it's hypothesized that this autoimmune reaction is triggering inflammation (including neurological inflammation) which might ultimately cause some or all ME symptoms.

Any clarifications appreciated ... immunology make my head spin faster than usual. :confused:
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
:balloons: Well everything KDM has to be good - he came many years ago to a blind audience UK (the psychos) - may he and his fellow Docs/Scientists against UK mumbo jumbo please pursue. WE know he is right.:balloons:
 

Sparrow

Senior Member
Messages
691
Location
Canada
This seems promising, but it seems to be only a sample size of 12 people so far - Much too low for anybody to get too excited about it yet. Hopefully this will lead to a larger study. It also seems like the findings may only suggest that we have this trait in common with people who have autoimmune conditions, rather than proving that ME is an autoimmune condition for a subset of people. It's suggestive, though. I'll keep my fingers crossed that good things come out of this path for us.
 

perrier

Senior Member
Messages
1,254
Fascinating. Question: viruses OK? but so many of KDM's patients are now testing positive for Borrelia. How does that fit?
 
Messages
15,786
This seems promising, but it seems to be only a sample size of 12 people so far - Much too low for anybody to get too excited about it yet. Hopefully this will lead to a larger study. It also seems like the findings may only suggest that we have this trait in common with people who have autoimmune conditions, rather than proving that ME is an autoimmune condition for a subset of people. It's suggestive, though. I'll keep my fingers crossed that good things come out of this path for us.

Actually I think the conclusion is that they did find a specific autoimmune reaction in 8 out of 12 patients, and that it's one that hasn't been found before, it ME patients or elsewhere. My impression was that they were talking about other autoimmune diseases primarily to show how autoimmunity in general can cause our sorts of symptoms - but that's in addition to the specific indications of an ME autoimmune reaction that they found.