Is there a Cure? (July 2013)
This is aside from the standard treatments administered today.
I have recently found an article on potential methods of stopping auto-immune diseases and their symptoms. In order to understand the research further medical terminology needs to be explained (and this is the cut down version):
T-Cells can be sub-divided into different categories, one being Treg - Which are regulatory cells that shut down the immune responses after they have destroyed invading cells (thus causing auto-immune diseases). Normally these cells exist with a ratio of less than 1 to 10 (<1:10) to other T-Cells, the proposed solution increases this ratio to over 1 to 1 (>1:1). One component in the Treg (IL-5 or IL-5r"alpha") seems to promote activation of relevant antigens (IL-4, CD4, CD25, FOXP3 specific Treg) and these cells would control auto-immune inflammation, by stopping the cells going beyond their initial activities of destroying the invading cells.
I have recently found an article on potential methods of stopping auto-immune diseases and their symptoms. In order to understand the research further medical terminology needs to be explained (and this is the cut down version):
T-Cells can be sub-divided into different categories, one being Treg - Which are regulatory cells that shut down the immune responses after they have destroyed invading cells (thus causing auto-immune diseases). Normally these cells exist with a ratio of less than 1 to 10 (<1:10) to other T-Cells, the proposed solution increases this ratio to over 1 to 1 (>1:1). One component in the Treg (IL-5 or IL-5r"alpha") seems to promote activation of relevant antigens (IL-4, CD4, CD25, FOXP3 specific Treg) and these cells would control auto-immune inflammation, by stopping the cells going beyond their initial activities of destroying the invading cells.
Interleukin-5 (IL-5) promotes induction of antigen specific CD4+CD25+T regulatory cells that suppress autoimmunity
Studies, so far, have been performed in a laboratory in New South Wales - Australia. The figures have been copied directly from their research papers (the explanations are in English!):
Note: All animals were given a strain similar to GBS. White = no other drug, Grey = Sham/placebo drug, Black = IL-5
Figures A, shows the reduced clinical effect on the rats given IL-5 (first graph) and the reduced effect of weight loss (second graph). The drugs were administered at 5,000 units/day for 10 days from the onset of GBS (usually day 12) and had an effect within 2 days.
Studies, so far, have been performed in a laboratory in New South Wales - Australia. The figures have been copied directly from their research papers (the explanations are in English!):
Note: All animals were given a strain similar to GBS. White = no other drug, Grey = Sham/placebo drug, Black = IL-5
Figures A, shows the reduced clinical effect on the rats given IL-5 (first graph) and the reduced effect of weight loss (second graph). The drugs were administered at 5,000 units/day for 10 days from the onset of GBS (usually day 12) and had an effect within 2 days.
Further tests were performed to see if the improvements seen in rats can be translated to humans. The initial trials on our blood samples seem positive. Clinical trials are hoped to be started in the next couple of years.
This is a completely different way of stopping the disease, by increasing the number of "good cells" that would prohibit the attack rather than directly going against the cells causing the issue.
This treatment could also impact other diseases such as MS. To me the results look very promising.
This is a completely different way of stopping the disease, by increasing the number of "good cells" that would prohibit the attack rather than directly going against the cells causing the issue.
This treatment could also impact other diseases such as MS. To me the results look very promising.
There are other methods being proposed for curing CIDP (bearing in mind that GBS is acute and thus, in theory, cures itself!), the best one I can find that is available, albeit very limited, is HSCT. I have a whole section being devoted to this, please use the button on the right.
Update Dec 2014: HSCT is a cure for CIDP: |