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Today, Thursday 15 Oct: Solve webinar with Dr Alan Light: New Developments in ME/CFS Research

Sasha

Fine, thank you
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6-7 pm BST
1-2 pm EST
10-11 am PST


Solve ME/CFS Initiative Webinar, Alan Light, PhD, Research Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Utah

Solve ME/CFS said:
Presented by Dr. Alan R. Light, Research Professor of Anesthesiology and Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah.

Dr. Light received his PhD from the State University of New York at Upstate Medical Center and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

He received a Javits Award from the National Institutes of Health for his research on descending control of pain. His current research focuses on the mechanisms of the sensations of muscle pain and fatigue and the plasticity they undergo following inflammation, injury and in functional disorders such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

You need to register - go here:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2090904248364180738
 

Seanko

Senior Member
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As a taster, check out Dr Light's videos on YouTube for the Dutch ME/CFS Society (ME/cvs Vereniging) on YouTube

 

ScottTriGuy

Stop the harm. Start the research and treatment.
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Toronto, Canada

Sasha

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UK
I have a meeting at that time - wonder if they will post the video later - or if some one here can give us a quick recap that'd be awesome too.

I think it's likely - they usually post their webinars on YouTube.
 

Sasha

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Bump! This is in about two and a half hours. I'm in danger of forgetting it's happening!

Don't forget that you need to register.
 

Sasha

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@Jonathan Edwards, Dr Light just said that it looks like individual autoantibodies are likely to be able to be treated soon. I didn't catch whether he said that this would be a better idea than rtx.

Any thoughts?

Wouldn't treating specific autoantibodies once they're formed mean that you're on treatment for life?
 
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@Jonathan Edwards, Dr Light just said that it looks like individual autoantibodies are likely to be able to be treated soon. I didn't catch whether he said that this would be a better idea than rtx.

Any thoughts?

Wouldn't treating specific autoantibodies once they're formed mean that you're on treatment for life?

Treatment for life is ok for me if it works. Big pharma likes this approach too for obvious reasons. Most RA treatment is for life too as far as I know - hence the number of trials in RA. I think it's every pharma companies dream to get a drug approved for RA.

I didn't catch any of the presentation, was it good ?
 

Sasha

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Treatment for life is ok for me if it works. Big pharma likes this approach too for obvious reasons. Most RA treatment is for life too as far as I know - hence the number of trials in RA. I think it's every pharma companies dream to get a drug approved for RA.

I didn't catch any of the presentation, was it good ?

I think it probably was good but my ability to concentrate is totally shot today - I couldn't take it in (and it would have been over my head anyway!) - but he was trying to link up some key things, including the POTS autoimmune stuff, the Norwegian work, and their own stuff.

As far as treatment goes, I'd rather get a one-off treatment that fixes me for life!
 

voner

Senior Member
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592
if I heard right, Dr. light said he took a look at the at an epittoe on the strepA bacteria and found 85% match to the epitope on B2 androgenetic receptor, so he says there's a case to be made for the possibility of molecular mimicry in an autoimmune situation.

hopefully, somebody else can affirm but I heard this correctly. He did not have slides showing any graphics about this .

he also at the end covered his recent work on Lyrica and ME/CFS patients with Comorbid fibromyalgia. interesting results, however I don't know if it's considered "ethical or proper" to discuss his findings before he publishes the data?

hopefully, somebody can help me out on that.

I took some screenshots of his slides, if anyone's interested in looking at them before they put the video up on the web.
 
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As far as treatment goes, I'd rather get a one-off treatment that fixes me for life!

I think we all would !
But treatments are a bit thin on the ground these days so I'll take whatever is going if it works !
 

Sasha

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I think we all would !
But treatments are a bit thin on the ground these days so I'll take whatever is going if it works !

But what I was thinking was that rtx should surely treat all B-cell-derived autoimmunity if you can knock all the cells out, whereas if you treat the cells once they're produced, you're on a long-term treatment. I don't see why you would ever go for the latter if the former is available.
 
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But what I was thinking was that rtx should surely treat all B-cell-derived autoimmunity if you can knock all the cells out, whereas if you treat the cells once they're produced, you're on a long-term treatment. I don't see why you would ever go for the latter if the former is available.

Ok, but lets say you can inject yourself once or twice a month with something that will kill only the autoanitbodies, that might be preferable to killing all your b cells. And killing all b cells doesn't seem to be a lasting treatment at the moment for most patients.
So maybe if you knew you wouldn't relapse after b cell depletion it might be preferable but still carries risk. Who knows, but maybe targeting only the autoantibodies might be less risky with less side effects.

Also, lets not forget, they haven't identified any guilty autoantibody so even if it becomes possible to target them they have to identify them first.... Still a bit of work to be done. But maybe slowly all the pieces will come together.
 

Sasha

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Ok, but lets say you can inject yourself once or twice a month with something that will kill only the autoanitbodies, that might be preferable to killing all your b cells. And killing all b cells doesn't seem to be a lasting treatment at the moment for most patients.

So maybe if you knew you wouldn't relapse after b cell depletion it might be preferable but still carries risk. Who knows, but maybe targeting only the autoantibodies might be less risky with less side effects.

Also, lets not forget, they haven't identified any guilty autoantibody so even if it becomes possible to target them they have to identify them first.... Still a bit of work to be done. But maybe slowly all the pieces will come together.

From what @Jonathan Edwards has said, the trick seems to be to wipe out all the B-cells and not leave the odd few, and that the patients who make what look like full and lasting recoveries are the ones in which that has properly happened.

But yes, maybe I'm thinking of a sci-fi version of rtx treatment in which we work out how to do this - but RA isn't curable with rtx (is it?) so maybe this isn't possible.

I seem to be talking through my hat, as with all things biomedical.

As you were. :whistle:
 
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From what @Jonathan Edwards has said, the trick seems to be to wipe out all the B-cells and not leave the odd few, and that the patients who make what look like full and lasting recoveries are the ones in which that has properly happened.

But yes, maybe I'm thinking of a sci-fi version of rtx treatment in which we work out how to do this - but RA isn't curable with rtx (is it?) so maybe this isn't possible.

I seem to be talking through my hat, as with all things biomedical.

As you were. :whistle:

Ha, I dont think you are talking through your hat and who knows maybe in the future there will be a choice of treatments ( imagine that !)
One might be full b cell depletion with the next generation rtx, whatever that turns out to be, and the other choice could be targeted at autoantibodies.

This is realistic in that if a better b cell depleting agent is on the market first it will always be there as an option, even if a newer drug can target the specific autoantibody.