Study helps explain chronic inflamm in autoimm. and cancer

[Suzy]

After seeing the article Maz posted titled RA Culprit Found by Japanese Researchers? I decided this one should should be read also. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/273278.php
The article Maz posted deals with the causes of RA and this one deals with the inflammation associated with autoimmunity and cancer. Both are excellent articles. In this article researchers have found the protein called Beta-catenin causes t-cells or tregs to switch functions and promote inflammation. This was discovered in colon cancer patients.

“We now have evidence that beta-catenin is a key molecule for expansion of both TH17 cells and pro-inflammatory Tregs,” Gounari said.

Gounari and colleagues were able to tease apart some of the mechanisms that generated pro-inflammatory T cells. They found that beta-catenin signaling initiated a cascade of events in both conventional T cells and Tregs that altered the chromatin organization and the type of genes expressed by T cells. These changes activate a protein called ROR?T that was previously known to direct the differentiation of TH17 cells.

“It’s like a tsunami,” said collaborating partner, Khashayarsha Khazaie, PhD, professor of immunology at the Mayo Clinic. “If you make both your conventional T cells and Tregs pro-inflammatory, then you’ve done it. You’ve lost control in a bad way.”

Understanding the process will provide ways to intervene in many diseases, the authors suggest.

“Activation of beta-catenin in T cells is unlikely to be restricted to these diseases, and is likely to happen in other autoimmune diseases and cancers, so there may be broad prospects for therapy of a range of chronic and often lethal diseases,” she adds.

I will now read and study both articles in order to understand them better both individually and collectively and to see if any of their findings supports the other.
As in the article Maz posted, I would also state

as what the author or researchers most likely mean is that a drug could be developed for continuous use to…..

Personally I would be ok with a safe way to control the misfolded proteins and out-of-this-world inflammation but I suspect this new information will lead to more and more understanding of the disease origins. Until then, a safer control sounds like a thousand rays of warm sunshine!!!!!

Hopeful…Suzy

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