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The immune, auto-immune and non-immune: 30 June post by Jorgen Jelstadt

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849

As usual, a superb article by Jorgen. I'm always impressed -- not only with his information, but his background research, references, and the high quality of the writing itself. Kudos to Jorgen (again)!

I particularly liked this bit of info:

What we are seeing suggests that there is a group of over-active immune system, a group of under active immune system and a group where the problem does not lie in the immune system, said Scheibenbogen.



So the question is whether scientists are able to find discrepancies that allows them to place the ME / CFS patients in the different subgroups based on specific and reproducible differences on tests. If it occurs, it will be far greater chance of finding the right treatment to the right patient.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Yes - and, as Jorgen says, nice to see completely new names coming to the party and making high-quality contributions.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Is it just me? I can only find a Dutch version of the article. When I click on 'In English' I get a page with a few short comments and a link http://debortgjemteinternational.wordpress.com/ where I can't find the article in question. I can't find anything later than June 2012.

I got the same thing. Google Chrome, however, gives me a pop-up bar at the top of my window on the main page asking if I want a translation. The translation is quite poor, but you can get the ideas well enough.

Jorgen himself translates some articles to English for us -- which is a real pleasure since they're so well written -- but this doesn't appear to be one of them.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Same again. I'm using Firefox and can't see a translate option. Could someone paste the English version here?


Here's the English version but if anyone reads it, please do click through to Jorgen's blog so he can at least see the traffic! I don't normally like to paste up someone's blog stuff in full for that reason. It's important to encourage people to continue posting by showing them in their stats that their posts are popular.

"While the cause of these changes is unclear, we speculate Whether they may suggest a subtle tendency two autoimmunity."​
Altered functional B cell subset populations in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Compared to healthy controls , Clinical and Experimental Immunology, April 2013.​
In the previous blog post I wrote about research on ME / CFS is initiated at the prestigious Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University. The research conference of the Invest in ME in London there were several researchers who are looking in the same direction. But the immune system is the body's most complex systems, and ME / CFS researchers' exploration of this system has been a long journey of discovery and non-discovery which succeed each other. But possibly also go this research area more productive times in the face.​
Previous blog entries: Window on the brain .​
One of the researchers who spoke at the conference in London was Amolak Bansal immunologist who works at Epsom and St Helier University Hospital in London. He believes ME / CFS may be a subtle malfunction of the immune system that is clearly expressed through standard immune testing, and that it is therefore difficult to grasp.​
- Epstein Barr virus (mononucleosis virus) may not be the cause of ME / CFS, but there are circumstances surrounding this virus that can cause autoimmunity, said Bansal and showed that the mononucleosis virus has been set in the context of several autoimmune disorders . Mononucleosis is one of the infections that are known to trigger ME / CFS, and there is also research showing that there may be a risk factor for MS. Bansal mean also stress factors are involved, since this affects the immune system.​
- Heavy acute stress is associated with an increased risk for autoimmune disorders, said Bansal.​
Review article in Autoimmunity Reviews: Stress and autoimmunity .​
Earlier this year, Bansal research group with a study that showed discrepancies in B cells , an important immune cell in ME / CFS patients. The problem with part of immunology research in ME / CFS is that the results have been inconsistent. Some research groups are differences in specific parts of the immune system, while others research groups not find the same deviations, but rather may find deviations in another part of the immune system. The most consistent findings in ME / CFS patients have been variations in NK-cells in the immune system (natural killer cells). This is part of the immune system's first defense against intruders.​
- But we did not NK cell problems in our samples. Neither the number or function, said Bansal.​
He wondered if the inconsistent findings in ME / CFS are dealing with an underlying malfunction which vary over time and are difficult to figure out. Meanwhile, patient selection be affecting the results, since there is no specific test that ensures diagnosis of ME / CFS, and the diagnosis therefore relies on clinical examination and usage criteria based on symptoms.​
Bansal ended with his own theory about what can cause ME / CFS.​
- Infections in a period of stress, sleep disorders, severe injury or the like, leading possibly to a malfunction of the B-cells. At some will B cells start producing autoantibodies to receptors in the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, said Bansal.​
If this is the case, it could explain the positive study with Rituximab from Haukeland University Hospital.​
- But perhaps it will be necessary to reduce the activity of some viruses may contribute to autoreactive B cells survive after Rituximab, said Bansal.​
Bansal has also written an overview article: Chronic fatigue syndrome, the immune system and viral infection .​
If this theory proves to be correct, Bansal believes that we are facing a paradigm shift in the understanding of ME / CFS, which he believes may be a form of autoimmunity. Next scientist who took the podium, began by saying that she is thinking along the same lines as Bansal and researchers from Haukeland in Norway. Professor of Immunology, Carmen Scheibenbogen, working at Charite in Berlin, one of Europe's largest university hospital and she has dozens of published studies in the field of cancer and immunology. She is a pretty fresh face research in ME / CFS, and a sign of even a scientist from an important and highly recognized research institution involved. Probably will soon appear the results of studies on ME / CFS from her group.​
- We think this is a disease that has its source in the immune system, said Scheibenbogen.​
Then she presented some of their findings in the patients they examine. Among other things, they look for a large proportion of patients a shift in immune function - what is called a Th2 shift. This is about a balance of helper T cell function in the immune system is complex, but the Th2 part of this system include been associated with allergies and hypersensitivity. Scheibenbogen told that they find discrepancies in several functions of the immune system in ME / CFS patients, but not one discrepancy that applies to all patients with symptom picture.​
- We also do thorough research on the association with Epstein Barr virus, and we hope to have more reliable results within half a year. In these studies, we compare the ME / CFS patients with MS patients, patients with major depression and healthy controls, said Scheibenbogen.​
Just such studies with multiple control groups is sorely missed in ME / CFS research. Often used only healthy subjects as controls in studies, but the problem is that you will almost always find differences in the immune system between sick and healthy people, regardless of what type of disease it is. It is important also to compare ME / CFS patients with diseases other to find out whether there are differences that appear to be unique to ME / CFS patients, or for any similarities with other diseases.​
Like many other researchers, Scheibenbogen believe that there are several subgroups of ME / CFS patients.​
- What we are seeing suggests that there is a group of over-active immune system, a group of under active immune system and a group where the problem does not lie in the immune system, said Scheibenbogen.​
So the question is whether scientists are able to find discrepancies that allows them to place the ME / CFS patients in the different subgroups based on specific and reproducible differences on tests. If it occurs, it will be far greater chance of finding the right treatment to the right patient.​
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Here's the English version but if anyone reads it, please do click through to Jorgen's blog so he can at least see the traffic! I don't normally like to paste up someone's blog stuff in full for that reason. It's important to encourage people to continue posting by showing them in their stats that their posts are popular.

I strongly second this request. Please do click the link to show you read his article.
 

MeSci

ME/CFS since 1995; activity level 6?
Messages
8,231
Location
Cornwall, UK
Review article in Autoimmunity Reviews: Stress and autoimmunity .​
Earlier this year, Bansal research group with a study that showed discrepancies in B cells , an important immune cell in ME / CFS patients. The problem with part of immunology research in ME / CFS is that the results have been inconsistent. Some research groups are differences in specific parts of the immune system, while others research groups not find the same deviations, but rather may find deviations in another part of the immune system. The most consistent findings in ME / CFS patients have been variations in NK-cells in the immune system (natural killer cells). This is part of the immune system's first defense against intruders.​
- But we did not NK cell problems in our samples. Neither the number or function, said Bansal.​
He wondered if the inconsistent findings in ME / CFS are dealing with an underlying malfunction which vary over time and are difficult to figure out. Meanwhile, patient selection be affecting the results, since there is no specific test that ensures diagnosis of ME / CFS, and the diagnosis therefore relies on clinical examination and usage criteria based on symptoms.​

Erica Verrillo made some valuable points about variation in immune function in ME here:

http://blogcritics.org/chronic-fatigue-and-immune-dysfunction-who/
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Met that 12 years ago Sasha - just hope this is not a case of reinventing the wheel.