MS Symptoms May Have Been 'Reversed' In Immunotherapy Breakthrough (iflscience.com) 31
A new immunotherapy that targets cells infected with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) has halted the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) in a small trial. Perhaps even more incredibly, in some patients, it is possible that symptoms of MS were actually reversed, though this was not fully identified in the most recent presentation of results (PDF). IFLScience reports: [S]ignificant evidence has linked infection of EBV and the eventual development of MS. [...] Attempting to "transform treatment of Multiple Sclerosis," Atara Biotherapeutics has developed an allogeneic T-cell therapy called ATA188. The concept is simple -- when cells are infected with EBV, they express small proteins called antigens on the cell surface, and the immunotherapy contains immune cells that target and destroy them.
In a trial of 24 patients who received the therapy, 20 saw improvements or stability in their symptoms and no fatal or serious adverse effects were reported. Early brain scans suggest that some damaged nerve cells may have been "repaired" by the therapy in a process called remyelination, which could mean a reversal of damage caused by MS in the nervous system, but this has not yet been confirmed. While the results are extremely promising, it is an early Phase 1 trial with a small sample size and no placebo or control group, so it is unclear whether the results are significant at this stage. However, it is unlikely that this repair would occur naturally, suggesting the therapy is having a beneficial effect on some level.
In a trial of 24 patients who received the therapy, 20 saw improvements or stability in their symptoms and no fatal or serious adverse effects were reported. Early brain scans suggest that some damaged nerve cells may have been "repaired" by the therapy in a process called remyelination, which could mean a reversal of damage caused by MS in the nervous system, but this has not yet been confirmed. While the results are extremely promising, it is an early Phase 1 trial with a small sample size and no placebo or control group, so it is unclear whether the results are significant at this stage. However, it is unlikely that this repair would occur naturally, suggesting the therapy is having a beneficial effect on some level.
Great! (Score:1, Informative)
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There you go bringing class into it again.
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There you go bringing class into it again.
That's what it's all about if only people would...
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Well, no, it really isn't.
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No, it's called being a cynical bastard.
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And with people like you with your attitude who are a zero in terms of inventions what can we expect?
The Wahls Protocol etc for the rest of us... (Score:3)
https://terrywahls.com/ [terrywahls.com]
"The Wahls Protocol comes out of Dr. Wahls' own quest to treat the debilitating symptoms she experiences as a sufferer of progressive MS. Informed by science, she began using Paleo principles as guidelines for her unique, nutrient-rich plan. This book shares Dr. Wahls' astonishing personal story of recovery and details the program, with up-to-date research she's now conducting at the University of Iowa."
See also Dr. Joel Fuhrman's writings as well (which are somewhat similar to the Wa
Autoimmune disorder (Score:5, Insightful)
A small sample size, admittedly, but promising research.
Hear Hear!! Advances versus one form of autoimmune disease potentially aids the understanding of the betrayal of each of our bodies immune system failures and/or overreactions.
Re: Autoimmune disorder (Score:5, Informative)
Epstein-Barr happens to be one of the many viruses that we don't have antiviral drugs for. Curious if this therapy of theirs works towards this end? I have chronic Epstein-Barr because I'm immunosuppressed. They think that I got Epstein-Barr from the transplanted kidney (along with its closely related cousin, cytomegalovirus, which I tested negative for before transplant and they know that the donor had it, sand drugs CAN cure that) but either way, Epstein-Barr is known to cause Hodgkin's lymphoma if your immune system can't clear it out, which, if it's chronic, doesn't happen until you stop taking the immunosuppressive drugs.
Possible solutions to your issues. Best of luck. (Score:1)
STAT3 is constitutively activated in chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection and can be a therapeutic target https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
another study https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]
Possible solution:
Cetirizine inhibits activation of JAK2-STAT3 pathway and mast cell activation in lung tissue of asthmatic mice https://europepmc.org/article/... [europepmc.org]
With a transplanted kidney, watch out for BK polyomavirus, which infects transplanted kidneys. Ivermectin looks to work
https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
BK po
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Vitamin C is problematic as uptake is regulated by the body. It's only effective if injected by a person who knows what they're doing. And I really can't advise that.
Spironolactone! (Score:2)
Check out Spironolactone!
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
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Epstein-Barr is also one that keeps coming up in research over and over as the cause for many autoimmune diseases. Because like HIV and varicella, it usually stays in your cells mostly inactive for life.
Type 1 diabetes and even long COVID. Yes, a COVID infection can cause a reactivation of EBV. It's possible that long COVID is the same as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome just suddenly hitting a lot more patients.
Figures MS was so buggy only (Score:1)
biological intervention could make a dent in it.
I fired up PowerPoint on a Professionally Managed machine at work the other day. It told me it was "updating office" for about 5 minutes before telling me it couldn't update office.
Yeah the IT monkeys are retards just about anywhere, but a product that can't be deployed by IT monkeys in a business environment is a poor quality product.
A cure for FUD! (Score:3)
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Yeah, the article is referring to having a monkey scrotum.
TLDMS
20 saw improvements or stability in their symptoms (Score:1)
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MS tends to be a progressive disease. That is, it gets worse over time. (Yes, there's relapsing-remitting MS, but that can often become progressive, too.) By that measure, stabilizing the symptoms - slowing or arresting the progression - counts as a win.
If you are grousing because the iflscience did not disaggregate the data for you (i.e., break down t
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To add detail, it's like hitting yourself with a hammer repeatedly. If you are able to stop the hammer, you won't get any new bruises. But that doesn't mean everything else will heal up quickly. MS does damage. Damage that isn't thought to be reversible, but sometimes still does reverse - because it's not all understood very well.
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If the placebo group progress then stability is an effect.
However, when you don't have a placebo group, as in this study, then you're comparing against hand waving. Progressive MS patients are expected to, well, progress, but they do so at vastly different, greatly varying rates, and all the measures have a lot of noise.
Phase I trials are designed to test toxicity, pharmokinetics and provide some guidance for dosage. But to gin up enthusiasm they squint at the data and try and find some hint of efficacy too
MS Symptoms (Score:2)
I suppose this is subscription only
How EBV causes MS (Score:2)
EBV also causes mononucleosis in young adults who did not get it as children ...
Here is a podcast by virologists that covers a study on EBV, and how it causes MS.
Also covers a correlation study of US army recruits, and found that those who did not get EBV in childhood (seronegative upon recruitment) have a higher incidence of MS.
TWiV 869 [microbe.tv]
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