Antibiotics to treat some auto immune disorders

goldthistime

I'd call this preliminary, but still interesting:

https://scitechdaily.com/study-reveals-how-gut-bacteria-drive-autoimmune-disease/

"Bacteria found in the small intestines of mice and humans can travel to other organs and trigger an autoimmune response, according to a new Yale study. The researchers also found that the autoimmune reaction can be suppressed with an antibiotic or vaccine designed to target the bacteria, they said.
The findings, published in Science, suggest promising new approaches for treating chronic autoimmune conditions, including systemic lupus and autoimmune liver disease, the researchers said.
Gut bacteria have been linked to a range of diseases, including autoimmune conditions characterized by immune system attack of healthy tissue. To shed light on this link, a Yale research team focused on Enterococcus gallinarum, a bacterium they discovered is able to spontaneously “translocate” outside of the gut to lymph nodes, the liver, and spleen.
In models of genetically susceptible mice, the researchers observed that in tissues outside the gut, E. gallinarum initiated the production of auto-antibodies and inflammation — hallmarks of the autoimmune response. They confirmed the same mechanism of inflammation in cultured liver cells of healthy people, and the presence of this bacterium in livers of patients with autoimmune disease.
Through further experiments, the research team found that they could suppress autoimmunity in mice with an antibiotic or a vaccine aimed at E. gallinarum. With either approach, the researchers were able to suppress growth of the bacterium in the tissues and blunt its effects on the immune system."

corinasue1143

So where do I sign up to be in a human study?

Diatonic12

Remember when people suffered greatly with ulcers/helicobacter pylori and then they started using antibiotics to cure it. Yay! This is awesome.

naomi8888

I was listening to a podcast this morning and this topic was discussed. Gut health is SO, SO important, it really affects your whole body.

snickerscharlie

It will be interesting to see how this translates to human studies if it ever gets that far.

Until then - like all research done on mice - yes, it's interesting, indicative that more research is likely warranted, but nothing at this point to get excited over or use as 'evidence' before its time.

snickerscharlie

Diatonic12 wrote: »

Remember when people suffered greatly with ulcers/helicobacter pylori and then they started using antibiotics to cure it. Yay! This is awesome.

It should also be noted that antibiotics can actually create life-threatening and highly contagious intestinal infections like C. diff.

So, a bit of a mixed bag.

rheddmobile

I have lupus, and like many other people, I first started showing symptoms after a mono infection. There have been studies on the connection between mono and lupus which have been inconclusive. The current theory is that in a tiny minority of people, parts of their blood cells resemble parts of the mono virus, enough to trigger an autoimmune response. It seems more than reasonable that some bacteria would similarly trigger a response in some mice (or indeed some people.)

The thing is, mono is a virus, and antibiotics don’t work on viruses. It’s overwhelmingly likely that autoimmune diseases aren’t instigated by a single pathogen but by millions of possible pathogens, most of which will only cause a problem in a tiny minority of people. Knocking out an auto immune response that you yourself engineered in a lab isn’t exactly a breakthrough.