Lars wrote:
First of all I am positively convinced that the asthma business in ms related.
Hi Lars,
In this thought you are in good company. Until recently it was assumed that allergy and asthma were almost the opposite of the autoimmune diseases because allergy and asthma seem to be TH2 driven and autoimmunes seem to be TH1 driven. Researchers are starting to find that relationship between allergy, asthma and immune-mediated diseases is closer than previously thought.
This excerpt from the April 2007 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY " Helminths as governors of immune-mediated inflammation" gives a hint of the current thought process regarding the possible relationship of the hygiene hypothesis or "loss of evolutionary normal conditions" and the increased incidence of asthma, allergy and immune-mediated diseases in the "developed" countries.
Quote:
2. The emergence of immune-mediated disease
IBD, asthma, MS and T1D are examples of immune-mediated diseases. Over the last 70 years, these immune-mediated diseases have become common in industrialized, highly developed countries but remain rare in less-developed countries.
IBD results from chronic inflammation of the small and/or large intestine. It is treated with immune-suppressive medications such as glucocorticoids, azathioprine, methotrexate and anti-cytokine mAbs. IBD was uncommon prior to the 1940s but now afflicts more than three million people in the United States and Europe (Loftus Jr., 2004). As IBD emerged within developed countries, it was most common in people living in cities (Ekbom et al., 1991), northern latitudes (Sonnenberg et al., 1991 and Shivananda et al., 1996) and with white collar type jobs (Sonnenberg, 1990). As countries develop economically, the prevalence of IBD in the population increases (Loftus Jr., 2004 and Lakatos et al., 2004) and when people move from a country with low prevalence to a developed country with high prevalence of IBD, their children acquire a higher risk of developing IBD (Jayanthi et al., 1992and Carr and Mayberry, 1999). This suggests that growing up in an industrialized, developed country increases the risk of acquiring IBD.
A similar situation exists with asthma. Asthma is caused by chronic inflammation of the airways, often with allergic provocation. Asthma has increased dramatically in developed countries over the last 40 years and is becoming prevalent in urban centres of developing countries (Braman, 2006). Children of Mexican immigrants born in the United States are more likely to report asthma symptoms than children born in Mexico and immigrating to the U.S. at older ages (Eldeirawi and Persky, 2006). Again, this suggests that the environment in developed countries promotes or permits asthma (Asher et al., 2006).
MS results from immune-mediated inflammatory destruction of neural pathways in the central nervous system. Like IBD and asthma, it is treated by suppressing immune cell function. The prevalence of MS has a strong geographical distribution (similar to IBD and asthma), has increased in frequency over the last century and is high in children of immigrants born in developed countries (Marrie, 2004). As countries develop improved sanitation, the prevalence of MS increases (Cabre et al., 2005).
Lars wrote:
If my theory is correct the asthma will go away with the other symptoms.
Your thought process is on track but you have to remember that there is nothing broad spectrum about Tovaxin. It was designed to be absolutely specific to eliminating myelin reactive T cells and doing nothing else. For that reason Tovaxin almost certainly won't have any effect on allergies, asthma or other "autoimmune" diseases although each of those other afflictions probably have their own _____ reactive T cells which Opexa could and probably eventually will design a vaccine for. As a matter of fact Opexa is working on a vaccine for Type 1 diabetes right now.
Bob
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