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Narcolepsy as an autoimmune disease: the role of H1N1 infection and vaccination

Ecoclimber

Senior Member
Messages
1,011
Lancet Neurol. 2014 Jun;13(6):600-613. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(14)70075-4.
Narcolepsy as an autoimmune disease: the role of H1N1 infection and vaccination.
Partinen M1, Kornum BR2, Plazzi G3, Jennum P4, Julkunen I5, Vaarala O6.
Author information

Abstract

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterised by loss of hypothalamic hypocretin (orexin) neurons. The prevalence of narcolepsy is about 30 per 100 000 people, and typical age at onset is 12-16 years. Narcolepsy is strongly associated with the HLA-DQB1*06:02 genotype, and has been thought of as an immune-mediated disease. Other risk genes, such as T-cell-receptor α chain and purinergic receptor subtype 2Y11, are also implicated. Interest in narcolepsy has increased since the epidemiological observations that H1N1 infection and vaccination are potential triggering factors, and an increase in the incidence of narcolepsy after the pandemic AS03 adjuvanted H1N1 vaccination in 2010 from Sweden and Finland supports the immune-mediated pathogenesis. Epidemiological observations from studies in China also suggest a role for H1N1 virus infections as a trigger for narcolepsy. Although the pathological mechanisms are unknown, an H1N1 virus-derived antigen might be the trigger.


A follow-up on my post here:
Are vaccines the cause of ME/CFS?

Eco
 
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Gemini

Senior Member
Messages
1,176
Location
East Coast USA

Key Narcolepsy-Influenza Vaccine Findings Retracted, Stanford researchers unable to replicate findings linking immune response to sleep disorder. Science, 1 August 2014, page 498.

"Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues retracted their influential study reporting a potential link between the H1N1 virus used to make the vaccine [Pandemrix] and narcolepsy."

"The retraction states that Mignot and his colleagues were unable to replicate the results of the ELISpot assay, a widely used method for measuring how the immune system cells such as T cells respond to fragments of foreign proteins, called antigens. Mignot told Science that while attempting to develop a diagnostic test for narcolepsy based on the assay, my lab could not make the ELISpot test work."

Had Mignot's results held, they could have led to the first proven example of a vaccine triggering an autoimmune response by mimicking the body's own proteins...."
 
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morse27

Senior Member
Messages
123
Location
NORTH of FRANCE
i'm ME/CFS since i toke the PANDEMRIX H1N1 flu vaccine in france with many other people in the world , my diagnose is shoenfeld syndrom or ME or war gulf illness , its interresting to verify if people receive squalen vaccin with all ME symptom have the same biomarker than war gulf vet or ME sick people , i think just N. KLIMAS can make the difference in the world , i'm waiting after her , , vaccins with adjuvant is the trigger for many auto immune disease , after this H1N1 vaccin with squalen , many disease appeared :narcolepsia , ME , MS, lupus, goujerot............... , beetween one and two weeks , its the time for our body to create auto anti bodies , i try rituxan since december , just 3 courses doses of 1 gr for the moment without benefits now after 3 months
 

Ecoclimber

Senior Member
Messages
1,011
@Gemini
I don't believe this research paper which you alluded to but then cited the research papers from Stanford below it, has been retracted.
Lancet Neurol. 2014 Jun;13(6):600-613. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(14)70075-4.
Narcolepsy as an autoimmune disease: the role of H1N1 infection and vaccination.



Pharmacol Res.
2015 Feb;92C:6-12. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2014.10.005. Epub 2014 Oct 29.
Is narcolepsy a classical autoimmune disease?
Arango MT1, Kivity S2, Shoenfeld Y3.
Author information
Abstract

Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness. It is caused by the loss of orexin producing neurons in the lateral hypothalamus. Current evidences suggest an autoimmune mediated process causing the specific loss of orexin neurons. The high association of the disease with the HLA DQB1*06:02, as well as the link with environmental factors and are important clues supporting this theory. Recently, the association between the occurrence of the disease and vaccination campaign after the 2009 H1N1 pandemic highlighted the importance to increase the knowledge in the Pandora box of the vaccines. This review discusses the last finding regarding the pathogenesis of the disease and its relationship with the H1N1 vaccines.

Is narcolepsy an autoimmune disease?
Medical News Today
Last updated: Tuesday 10 March 2015 at 3am PST

Around 3 million people worldwide suffer from narcolepsy or bouts of sleepiness and sleep attacks that can affect their ability to have a normal life. There is no cure for the disorder, and few clues about its causes. But now, a new study suggests it could be an autoimmune disease.

In the journal Pharmacological Research, Yehuda Shoenfeld, a professor at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and a world expert in autoimmune disease, and colleagues describe how they found an autoimmune process in the brain that appears to trigger narcolepsy.
They say narcolepsy bears the hallmarks of an autoimmune disorder and should be treated like one.

Narcolepsy first strikes people between the ages of 10 and 25, and plagues them for life.

The condition occurs with some or all of the following symptoms: falling asleep without warning, excessive daytime sleepiness, hallucinations, slurred speech, sudden loss of muscle tone, temporary weakness of most muscles, temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up.

Eco
So scientists are in the process of building a case that narcolepsy is a possible autoimmune disorder.
 
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Gemini

Senior Member
Messages
1,176
Location
East Coast USA
@Gemini
I don't believe this research paper which you alluded to but then cited the research papers from Stanford below it has been retracted.
Lancet Neurol. 2014 Jun;13(6):600-613. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(14)70075-4.
Narcolepsy as an autoimmune disease: the role of H1N1 infection and vaccination.

@Ecoclimber, sorry for the confusion re: the retracted paper. I was referring to Mignot's published in Science Translational Medicine 18 December 2013.

It was rigorously peer-reviewed, findings replicated in 3 independent patient groups according to the Editor. But Mignot retracted it when he couldn't reproduce certain lab results.

However he & others you indicate still believe narcolepsy is autoimmune.

His recent paper:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25771509