• 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 Discovery To Be Published In Science This Week

shannah

Senior Member
Messages
1,429
http://www.therapeuticsdaily.com/ne...e=715317&contentType=newsarchive&channelID=28

Genetic regulator opens new avenues to AIDS, immune system research

From the PharmaLive.com News Archive - Jul. 01, 2010
CORVALLIS, Ore. Researchers at Oregon State University and the California Institute of Technology have discovered that a genetic regulator which is critical to many life functions also plays a key role in the formation of "T cells," a type of white blood cell that's important in immune function.

The discovery, to be announced Friday in the journal Science, suggests that some types of immune function might be influenced by manipulation of this genetic regulator. This could be a target for drug development, and could open the door to new immune system-based therapies for everything from diseases of T cells, such as HIV/AIDS, to autoimmune disorders and allergies.

Other aspects of the research could be of interest to scientists trying to re-program cells to perform different functions, which is the basis of stem cell research.

The genetic regulator, or transcription factor, is called Ctip2, and it's also known as Bcl11b. It's a protein that controls gene "expression," or what aspects of a cell's genetic code will be turned on and which will be left silent. Discovered at OSU in 2000, Ctip2 has in recent years been found to be a master regulator of gene expression, controlling tissue formation in organs as diverse as tooth enamel, brain cells, skin, and T cells.

"Ctip2 is so important to various life functions that laboratory mice lacking this gene die within a few hours after birth," said Mark Leid, a professor and assistant dean in the OSU College of Pharmacy. "Ctip2 is not expressed in every cell, but plays essential roles in several different organs. The new finding about its relationship to early events in T cell formation may be of substantial interest to immunologists and clinicians alike."

T cells are important players in what's called the "adaptive" immune system, or the ability of an organism to mount an attack against a new invader, fight it off and then provide full or partial immunity to it in the future.

Ctip2 helps regulate the complicated process that ends up creating T cells. Depending on the stage of development when it's knocked out, this can result either in T cells not being formed, or different kinds of cells being formed something that would be of significant interest to researchers who are trying to re-program cells to perform different functions.

Part of what's remarkable about Ctip2, researchers say, is the range of seemingly separate yet critical functions it performs. Ctip2 is essential in the creation of teeth, the formation of skin, and T cells. In all of these cells and tissues, Ctip2 is involved in differentiation of one cell type into another, more mature cell. OSU researchers have also found that the amount of Ctip2 expressed by certain cancer cells is correlated with the aggressiveness of tumors, which may be helpful for diagnostic purposes.

Every cell in the human body, and that of plants and other animals, contains the entire "genome," or genetic blueprint of life of the particular organism. Research on genetic regulators has been of increasing interest in recent years because these proteins hold the key to which genes are expressed, instructing one cell to become a brain cell while another is directed to become a blood cell.

"I've always been in awe of how transcription factors direct complicated events, such as development, in which mammals progress from a single, fertilized cell into a complex, three-dimensional organism in a relatively short period of time," Leid said. "It's just a beautifully choreographed dance, and timing is everything."

Ctip2 seems to be a very top-level regulator of development and differentiation in many different cell types, Leid said. It should be possible to develop drugs that decrease, increase or otherwise modify Ctip2 activity, and such drugs may be useful in the treatment of certain malignancies, such as leukemia, and skin cancers, he said.


###
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.

Contact: Mark Leid
mark.leid@oregonstate.edu
541-737-5809
Oregon State University
 

muffin

Senior Member
Messages
940
Interesting. Thanks for posting

I'm not a scientist, but this seems to be of value to us CFIDSers. Actually, to me it seems to be rather valuable information.

Thanks for publishing this. I am going to copy to my computer and watch to see what goes on with this line of research. My immune system is GONE. I get everything that comes along from one little trip to the supermarket. Skin infections from hang nails. So, to me this is imiportant.
 

shannah

Senior Member
Messages
1,429
Yes, it does sound that it might hold promise. I forwarded a copy over to Judy Mikovits. Don't know if it will get her attention or not.

I too get infections from hang nails or the slightest scratch.
 

muffin

Senior Member
Messages
940
When first sick, I NEVER got "sick". When I hit around the ten year mark (give or take a year - I have no ability to gauge time anymore) then my immune system crashed and I was constantly sick with both viral and bacterial infections in the gut, lungs, skin, etc. It's so bad now that they have to put me on two and three antibiotics (two at the same time is the norm) because the ABs are just not able to kill of what gets me. My immune system can't help or do its job so the ABs aren't able to do their job.

I am now on Valtrex and I think it "may" be helping me. I am into the two month mark only, but I am getting the night sweats that indicate to me that my immune system is fighting something off and I would guess that's because the Valtrex is doing something. But who knows. I could have a tooth infection and that might be causing the night sweats too. Though when the immune system crashed and burned that was basically the end of the horrific night sweats (drenching night sweats like the AIDS folks get).