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Studies / Adjunct Research / Genetics- The Missing Link?
New evidence of a single genetic factor has been reported by independent researchers in three different autoimmune diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and psoriasis. "All three teams found defects in the same genetic element, part of a switch that controls genes in blood
cells, including those of the immune system," the New York Times
reported on November 9th[2003]. The findings of all three teams were published
in Nature Genetics. Although most diseases described as autoimmune are not thought to be hereditary, the prevalence of familial patterns has suggested the possibility that a genetic gating factor mediates the process, regardless of whether it starts with an infection, some other environmental contaminant or a combination of such factors. Until recently, insights to the role of genes in disease have remained elusive because of their numbers and the complexity of their interactions.
The genetic pathway common to all three diseases reported in November
involves Runx-I, a transcription factor protein that oversees
development of blood cells. Transcription factors are switching agents
at genetic stations throughout the human genome. The Runx-1 protein
failed in the same way in each disease, although it is not yet known
why.
Part of the institutional resistance to the infectious theory derives
from the misperception that it is an all-or-nothing thesis and that it
stands alone. On the contrary, one of the earliest proponents of an
infectious cause of connective tissue diseases, Dr. Thomas McPherson
Brown, saw a far more complex process in which infection was simply the
trigger. Dr. Brown worked to disarm the mechanism so that it didn't
continue to fire, but he repeatedly stressed that antibiotics alone were
not the final answer.
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