Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr13/cfs14.zip/CFS14.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 15KB | 311 lines

    Subject: #14 NIH Study on CFS Immune Abnormalities (fwd)

I wasn't sure if people on the net got this routinely.  It comes out from
NIH and sometimes has some very good information in it.
To subscribe, e-mail the bitnet address.
Nicolette




---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1993 05:04:54 EST
From: CFS-NEWS Electronic Newsletter <[e-mail]>
To: Multiple recipients of list CFS-NEWS <[e-mail]>
Subject: #14 NIH Study on CFS Immune Abnormalities

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            Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Electronic Newsletter

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
 No. 14                    February 7, 1993             Washington DC
 --------------------------------------------------------------------

                NIH STUDY ON CFS IMMUNE ABNORMALITIES

        CONTENTS

 >>>1.  NIH study on CFS immune abnormalities
 >>>2.  U.S. Senate vote to affect CFS research funding
 >>>3.  Physician's CFS network discussion
 >>>4.  Lyme Disease electronic newsletter
 >>>5.  Any Prodigies out there?

------------------------------------

 >>>1.  NIH study published on CFS immune abnormalities

[The following is the full text of a February 5, 1993 news release
from NIAID, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.]

       "Immune Abnormalities Found in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
          May Lead to Better Understanding of the Disease"

Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) report finding subtle immune abnormalities in people
with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) that ultimately may explain why
they develop the painful muscles and joints, tender lymph nodes and
other symptoms associated with the illness.

In the January issue of the _Journal_of_Clinical_Immunology, NIAID
researchers Stephen E. Straus, M.D., Warren Strober, M.D., and Janet
K. Dale, R.N., who with National Cancer Institute contractors Scott
Fritz, Ph.D., and Barbara Gould of Program Resources Inc./Dyncorp,
Frederick, Maryland, carried out the study, describe their analysis
of immune cells taken from patients with CFS.

Most notably, the CFS patients had significant differences in the
number and character of one type of immune cell -- T cells that carry
helper molecules, called CD4, on their surfaces.  These cells, known
as CD4+ T cells, orchestrate the immune response.

During development, a CD4+ T cell acquires receptors enabling it to
link with a single foreign invader, called an antigen.  Thereafter,
until the CD4+ T cell dies, it reacts only with that antigen.

CD4+ T cells circulate in the blood either as "naive" cells that have
not interacted with their antigen; or as "memory" cells that have
interacted with their antigen, and upon re-exposure to that antigen
quickly stir the immune system into action.  Certain cell surface
molecules distinguish the naive cells from the memory cells.

The NIAID investigators found that, as a group, the CFS patients had
a significant but slight reduction in the number of these naive T
cells.  In addition, whereas the patients had normal numbers of the
memory T cells, a greater-than-average share of them displayed
various adhesion molecules.  Adhesion molecules act like address
labels, enabling circulating T cells to home and attach to particular
tissues.

In summary, these findings suggest that although a greater proportion
of CD4+ T cells had shifted from naive to memory T cells,
sophisticated blood tests did not find excess memory cells because
more had developed adhesion molecules, left the circulating blood and
entered tissues.  The researchers theorize that exposure to
infectious agents or underlying neuroendocrine or neuropsychiatric
abnormalities could directly or indirectly trigger this increased
maturation of CD4+ T cells.

Their findings also explain why the CFS patients, as a group, had a
slight decrease in total CD4+ T cells, a decrease matched by the
deficit in the naive cell subset.  "This decrease does not indicate
that CD4+ T cells are being destroyed, such as happens in AIDS," says
Dr. Straus, "but that more CD4+ T cells appear to change location,
shifting from the blood into the tissues.  These tissue-based cells
escape detection by research blood tests."

None of the immunologic differences are large or frequent enough to
constitute a meaningful diagnostic test for CFS, Dr. Straus says.
Their observations do have clinical implications, however.

Finding an increased number of memory cells with adhesion molecules,
the investigators speculate, may help explain why CFS patients
experience painful muscles and joints, tender lymph nodes and other
associated symptoms.  In the tissues, CD4+ T cells release molecules
that help regulate the immune response.  These molecules can cause
mild inflammation and pain.  "The same process causes pain in the
intestines of people with inflammatory bowel disease," says Dr.
Strober, another member of the team who is an immunologist and expert
in inflammatory bowel disease.

To test the validity of their theory of CFS pain, the researchers are
now examining the function of various subsets of T memory cells taken
from patients.

Aside from the noted T-cell differences, the investigators found no
other immune cell abnormalities in the CFS group.  The cells examined
included macrophages, which scavenge foreign debris; natural killer
(NK) cells, the first line of defense against an invading organism;
and B cells, which produce specific molecules that guard against and
can destroy the invader.  The researchers note that using frozen cell
samples may have affected the NK cell measurements, however, because
NK cells may not survive freezing as well as other cells.

All 18 CFS patients in the study met the full criteria for CFS as
defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  None could work
full time:  six worked part time, and 12 could not work at all.
Although seven patients had mild depression, none had more serious
depressive symptoms.  The group included 13 women and five men, ages
24 to 49, half of whom had been ill for more than 7.4 years.  The
syndrome had begun abruptly with an infectious-type illness in 17 of
the cases.  The investigators required that all participants be
medication-free, except for occasional acetaminophen use, for at
least two weeks prior to the study.  They also had to adhere to a
restrictive diet for at least four days prior to blood sampling.  The
healthy volunteers matched the patients in both sex and age.

The researchers separately compared the CFS patients and the healthy
volunteers with another group of 10 chronically fatigued patients as
well.  All suffered from a prolonged, debilitating fatigue following
an infectious illness, resembling the onset of CFS.  The fatigue
patients had no alternative diagnosis but did not report enough
symptoms to conform fully to the CDC definition of CFS.  As a group,
the immune profiles of these patients mirrored those of the CFS
patients, indicating that forms of severe fatigue that do not
completely fulfill the CDC criteria can show similar immunologic
changes to those seen in CFS.

Like other immunologic studies of CFS, this one represents a snapshot
of one group of CFS patients.  The NIAID study will continue for
several years, however, to allow a more detailed picture of the
disease in these patients to emerge.  The data collected will be
analyzed to determine if these or other immune differences found vary
with time or correlate with symptom severity or recovery.


 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 >>>2.  U.S. Senate vote to affect CFS research funding

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on the NIH
Re-authorization bill, which contains provisions which would
strengthen research funding for CFS.  A duplicate bill was vetoed
last year by President Bush who objected to a provision which
authorized fetal tissue research.  President Clinton is expected to
sign the bill if it is passed by the Congress, and the Senate will be
taking up the matter as soon as they re-convene this Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The CFIDS Association and other support groups are asking CFS
patients in the USA to telephone their Senators' offices to support
this measure.  The bill is designated as Senate bill S-1.

The CFS-oriented provisions in the bill will mandate the following:

   - NIH will make an annual report to the Congress for 3 years
     and will describe CFS research priorities;

   - NIH will establish an Extramural Study Section, i.e., there will
     be a formal program for NIH to fund CFS research outside of the
     agency;

   - NIH will include scientists and consumers who have expertise in
     CFS on the agency's advisory boards and committees;

   - continued authorization for the 3 regional CFS research centers
     that have been established.


CFS-NEWS will continue to report on the progress of this legislation.

[This article was based on information provided by the CFIDS Assoc.
which is located in Charlotte, North Carolina.]


 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 >>>3.  Physician's CFS network discussion

A CFS electronic discussion group for physicians is being created on
the Internet, and will likely be linked to a parallel USENET
newsgroup.  The discussion group, named CFS-MED, is ready for
Internet subscriptions now but the start of the group's active
discussion will be delayed for a week or so until certain questions
are resolved, including:

   - how best to notify interested physicians that the group exists?
   - how to gain the participation of physicians who have broad
     clinical experience with CFS? (the discussion will be much more
     useful if it can draw on such experience)
   - should the discussion be moderated, i.e. messages for posting
     will be sent to a moderator who checks that the message is
     appropriate for the list's definition (a medical discussion of
     clinical and research issues re CFS)
   - what to call the parallel USENET newsgroup (which will likely be
     in the alt.med structure)?  There's already an alt.med.cfs; the
     name alt.med.cfs-med is slightly redundant; perhaps the name
     alt.med.cfs-physicians-talk would suffice.

Any suggestions are welcome and should be conveyed to Roger Burns,
the founder of CFS-MED (and the editor of CFS-NEWS).  Mr. Burns may
be reached at Internet address [e-mail], Fidonet address
1:279/14, or post a message to CFS-L or the CFS echo, or telephone to
1-202-966-8738.

Internet subscriptions are available now and be obtained by sending
the command SUB CFS-MED <your> <name> (where your name replaces
<your> <name>) to the Internet address [e-mail] or to
[e-mail] .


 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 >>>4.  Lyme Disease electronic newsletter

An electronic newsletter devoted to Lyme Disease issues is now
available on Internet and USENET.  The symptoms of Lyme Disease can
be quite similar to CFS, therefore this news resource for Lyme is
mentioned here in CFS-NEWS.  To subscribe to the newsletter on
Internet and to obtain issues numbered 1 and 2, send the following
commands:

   subscribe LymeNet-L <your> <name>
   get LymeNet-L/newsletters 1-01
   get LymeNet-L/newsletters 1-02

to the address [e-mail] .  This is not a standard listserv
such as on BITNET, so to get a list of appropriate commands send the
command HELP to [e-mail] .

The newsletter's editor-in-chief is Marc Gabriel <[e-mail]>
and the newsletter has been developed in cooperation with the Lyme
Disease Network of New Jersey.

[Information provided by LymeNet-L's editor-in-chief Marc Gabriel.]


 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 >>>5.  Any Prodigies out there?

Very active discussions about CFS are taking place on the Prodigy
commercial network.  However, the editor of CFS-NEWS is not currently
subscribed to Prodigy and he is looking for a volunteer who may help
to regularly exchange information between CFS-NEWS and the Prodigy
CFS discussion.  Please contact the editor Roger Burns at Internet
address [e-mail] or at Fidonet 1:279/14 or at Compuserve
73260,1014 or at telephone [phone] or at postal address 2800
Quebec St. NW #1242, Washington, DC 20008, USA.


 ===================================================================
   CFS-NEWS (ISSN 1066-8152) is an independent newsletter edited
   by Roger Burns in Washington D.C. and is distributed on the
   Fidonet CFS echo, on Internet, and through the USENET Newsgroup
   bit.listserv.cfs.newsletter.  Back issues are on file on the
   CFIDS/CFS BBS in Maine USA at telephone [phone] in file
   area H.  Suggestions and contributions of news may be sent via
   Internet to [e-mail], or via Fido NetMail to
   CFS-NEWS at 1:109/432, or post a message to the CFS echo or to
   newsgroup alt.med.cfs.  Patients should read the resource file
   CFS-RES.TXT available on the BBS mentioned above and elsewhere.
   Copyright (c) 1993 by Roger Burns.  Permission is granted to
   excerpt this document if the source (CFS-NEWS) is cited.
   Permission is also granted to reproduce the entirety of this
   document unaltered.  This notice does not diminish the rights
   of others whose copyrighted material as so noted may be quoted
   herein.  Note that Fido and Fidonet are registered marks of Tom
   Jennings and Fido Software.
 ===================================================================

INTERNET users are encouraged to obtain the RESOURCE file and other
CFS files at the NIH file server.  To obtain the resource file, send
Internet e-mail to the address [e-mail] with the subject
line GET FTP CFS.RESOURCE (the message text is ignored).  Or log in
via anonymous ftp to cu.nih.gov or 128.134.64.7 with password=guest,
directory=CFS, filename=RESOURCE.  Distribution of CFS-NEWS on the
Internet is sponsored by the NIH Computing Utility; however, this
independent newsletter does not represent the views of the National
Institutes of Health.  To subscribe, send the command SUB CFS-NEWS
<your> <name> to the address [e-mail] or @LIST.NIH.GOV
For back issues send the command INDEX CFS-NEWS to the LISTSERV
address above and thereafter use the command GET CFS-NEWS <log
filename> to retrieve one of the monthly logs.
=====================================================================