Secretor status

[SwanRonson]

Has their been any research with regards to secretor status (I believe this is FUT2) and CFS? I wonder what the frequency of non-secretors is within the CFS community.

 

[out2lunch]

Has their been any research with regards to secretor status (I believe this is FUT2) and CFS? I wonder what the frequency of non-secretors is within the CFS community.

I'm going to bump this thread. My doc and I are having this very discussion right now, about FUT2 SNPs and gut issues.

Sterling Hill recently released another blog entry about the "most important genes" on her latest variant report.
FUT2 is one of them:

FUT2: The 3 major FUT2 genes that seem to cause problems are FUT2 A12190G, FUT2 G12447A and FUT2 G12758A. When these three SNPs are homozygous, these people cannot make H antigen.
Why is H antigen important?

The specificity of the H antigen is determined by the sequence of oligosaccharides. Almost everyone to date who has been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are homozygous for these three particular mutations. These three FUT2’s play a huge role in autism.

FUT2’s catalytic activity is GDP-beta-L-fucose + beta-D-galactosyl-(1->3)-N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminyl-(1->3)-beta-D-galactosyl-(1->4)-beta-D-glucosyl-(1<->1)-ceramide = GDP + alpha-L-fucosyl-(1->2)-beta-D-galactosyl-(1->3)-N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminyl-(1->3)-beta-D-galactosyl-(1->4)-beta-D-glucosyl-(1<->1)-ceramide.

FUT2 is involved in protein glycosylation.

More or less, if you are lacking the ability to produce H antigen in the gut, your probiotics will not have anything to stick to in the gut.

I normally do not recommend products and I am not affiliated with Klaire Labs in any way but they do have a prebiotic called Galactomune that contains galactooligosacchrides and beta-glucan. These are essential for anyone with the above FUT2’s homozygous in order for probiotics to stick to their gut and be utilized.
Another thing that we see quite often in these homozygouse FUT2’s is hyperoxaluria when a prebiotic containing galactooligosacchrides and beta-glucan is not administered daily. It is nearly next to impossible to heal the gut of these people without these type of prebiotics.
Next, most of the probiotics that they are missing in the gut have to do with breaking down oxalates. Again I do not normally recommend certain probiotics and I am not affiliated or do I get paid for promoting the following companies. It is best to wait about 12 weeks before starting Bravo yogurt in order to have the prebiotics in place. Bravo contains all essential probiotics in order to remove oxalates from the gut and to jump start sulfation in the gut. One product that can be started with Galactomune until you have the prebiotic in place for a few months is Jarro-Dophilus EPS. It does contain a handful of essential probiotics that are needed to remove oxalates but not all of them. Unfortunately Bravo holds the patent on many of the probiotics needed to remove oxalate from the body.

Since poor producers of H antigen already have issues maintaining a healthy gut flora because of their lack of prebiotic production, it is obvious that GMO’d Roundup Ready glyphosate which destroys the shikimate pathway of our gut microbiome is not healthy at all for anyone and especially for these individuals.​

In a different thread, @Sea mentioned that these three FUT2 SNPs Sterling writes about are linked together and usually inherited as a set, and occur about 50% of the time.

Am I reading this correctly? FUT2 SNPs have an occurrence approaching 50% in our population?

I'm homozygous for all three, and have had gut problems my entire life. I also have a recently discovered oxalate burden that's been driving my fibromyalgia symptoms, most likely for decades.

Is secretor status a bigger deal for ME/CFS/FMS than our doctors realize?

Is Sterling onto something significant?

 

[Valentijn]

Is Sterling onto something significant?

My impression from reading the quoted bits above is that they really don't know what they're talking about. They start by calling SNPs "genes" even when on the same gene, and say being homozygous is relevant without stating which homozygous version is problematic.

They also don't mention that the first SNP listed probably isn't relevant itself (it's a synonymous/silent mutation which results in no changes), but is in tight linkage disequilibrium with a SNP allele which results in premature termination of the protein being created. That premature termination from an A allele is extremely common, and about 25% of people are homozygous for it - over 30% in some Caucasian samples. And another 50% are heterozygous.

It's hard to believe that 25%-75% of the world needs the product being marketed to cure a problem which has not been found to exist in conjunction with those SNPs. Actual research for the specific mutation and information about FUT2 are at www.omim.org/entry/182100#0001 . Mostly AA is just protective against a norovirus and might be responsible for a ridiculously small increase in the risk of developing Crohn Disease.

It's also completely ridiculous to state that it is "obvious" that a substance is causing widespread mayhem, in the complete lack of any evidence to that effect. This is sounding like a commercially motivated message created by someone who has little understanding of any of the subject matter.

 

[out2lunch]

My impression from reading the quoted bits above is that they really don't know what they're talking about. They start by calling SNPs "genes" even when on the same gene, and say being homozygous is relevant without stating which homozygous version is problematic.

They also don't mention that the first SNP listed probably isn't relevant itself (it's a synonymous/silent mutation which results in no changes), but is in tight linkage disequilibrium with a SNP allele which results in premature termination of the protein being created. That premature termination from an A allele is extremely common, and about 25% of people are homozygous for it - over 30% in some Caucasian samples. And another 50% are heterozygous.

It's hard to believe that 25%-75% of the world needs the product being marketed to cure a problem which has not been found to exist in conjunction with those SNPs. Actual research for the specific mutation and information about FUT2 are at www.omim.org/entry/182100#0001 . Mostly AA is just protective against a norovirus and might be responsible for a ridiculously small increase in the risk of developing Crohn Disease.

It's also completely ridiculous to state that it is "obvious" that a substance is causing widespread mayhem, in the complete lack of any evidence to that effect. This is sounding like a commercially motivated message created by someone who has little understanding of any of the subject matter.

Thanks for the info! And clearer perspective!

 

[SwanRonson]

I think the biggest "risk" from FUT2 is decreased diversity in the microbiome. Under the right conditions it seems plausible that one bug could become dominant in an unhealthy way. But, I can't find any studies speaking to this.

Of course, the positive is that you rule out pathogens like norovirus and rotavirus which need that antigen to work. Two edged sword I guess.

Side-note: A few years ago norovirus ran through my family twice over in the period of 6 weeks. My wife and kids were throwing up multiple times a day for days on end it seemed. My wife ended up in the ER needing fluids. I cleaned it all up every time and never got the virus. They were all pissed.

 

[aquariusgirl]

What about the links v. FUT2 & chrohns disease?
http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/v8/n11/full/ismej201464a.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20570966/

 

[aquariusgirl]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/674718235862761472

 

[aquariusgirl]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/678274784031977473