Anti-retrovirals and CNS penetration

[winsomme]

one question I am starting to have thinking ahead to when or if PWCs positive for XMRV get treated is this.

CFS is thought to be have as a central feature a disturbance in the Central Nervous System. Thus, one might think that the XMRV has penetrated there.

But one of the current troubles in treating HIV is that antiretrovirals don't generally penetrate the blood brain barrier very well.

So how would these medications (like AZT, for instance) be able to get to cells infected with XMRV in the CNS - which is at the core of CFS?

 

[leaves]

eh ... good point
darn

 

[flybro]

A recent study found something in the gut that enables HIV to penetrate the blood brain barrier, something to do with leaky intestine I think.

Anyway if they've found how HIV crossed the blood brain barrier, they may be able to invent a non toxic version, to enable the drugs to penetrate the BB.

The info and study is somewhere on pheonix, possibly in the research library

 

[Kelvin Lord]

I did Valcyte for 6 months and all it did was clear up canker sores. Headaches never abated. I really believe that the distribution of medicine designed to target the head, through the stomach, is absurd. Dr. Jay Goldstein was a leading proponent of improving drug distribution- and had a number of patients who took meds topically, anally, through sprays and other routes that bypassed the stomach. The drug companies love to sell "little pills" but I believe they will be viewed by the next generation of smart people like we do the barber pole today and "blood letting" of last century. It just makes no sense unless you have a stomach problem. IMHO.

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

Well, remember this, we will never be able to remove XMRV. It is a retrovirus, which means we are stuck with it until we die. But the treatments Mikovitz is talking about is to stop the virus from replicating. By stopping the replication, the hope is to reduce the damage and the struggle so the immune system can recover. I can foresee that future treatments for those who are severly ill and have been for years, will also have to include trying to fix the damage done to the immune system.

Anyway, maybe the neurological can eventually recover if the virus is prevented from growing. And right now, that means avoiding stress, moderating androgen levels from the highs and lows of cycles, not getting another virus, using anti virals for the herpes and other viruses in our body, and avoiding vaccines.

Theoretically, the same things would activate virus replication in the brain, don't you think? We know hormones do have neurological symptoms. Women often become absent minded during some times of the month. So the hormones can get to the brain tissue, it seems to me.

According to Osler's Web, some PWC, in time, no longer have the white spots on their brain scans. So improvement in neurological is possible. Seems the key is to stop this virus, make it go dormant. Then you can try to fix the damage it caused. But if it is still replicating, then it is still doing damage.

Tina

 

[usedtobeperkytina]

lady, the fear about vaccine is a good point. But, remember this, 4% of population is already XMRV positive. So there will still be a lot of future sick people to create a demand for treatment.

From what I remember of reading Osler's Web, the CFs immune system abnormalities mirror the AIDS abnormalities. That is, the part that is high in CFS is low in AIDS and the part that is low in CFS is high in AIDS. So it is not the same, but an opposite of AIDS.

Tina

 

[Gerwyn]

lady, the fear about vaccine is a good point. But, remember this, 4% of population is already XMRV positive. So there will still be a lot of future sick people to create a demand for treatment.

From what I remember of reading Osler's Web, the CFs immune system abnormalities mirror the AIDS abnormalities. That is, the part that is high in CFS is low in AIDS and the part that is low in CFS is high in AIDS. So it is not the same, but an opposite of AIDS.

Tina

I think that aids causes depression of certain elements of the immune system and ME/cfs seems to involve elevation I cant remember which bits I do know that persistent immune elevation causes encephalopathy because of depression of HPA axis