immunology Archives - Amazing Health Advances

A Diagnostic Tool That Treats Autism Like Cancer

AHA Publisher — Tue, 25 May 2021 07:00:01 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – An Israeli pediatric hematologist-oncologist believes immunology is the key to diagnosing and treating many cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dr. Benjamin Gesundheit readily admits it sounds crazy to treat a neurodevelopmental condition the way one might treat cancer. But international reports from as early as 1962 reveal that children with autism may have autoimmune diseases in their family. Moreover, treating ASD children for autoimmune diseases, such as asthma, sometimes results in improvement of their ASD symptoms as well – typically, impaired social and communication skills and unusual repetitive behavior. Intrigued by this anecdotal evidence, Gesundheit left his practice in 2011 to research the connection between autism and immune dysfunction. “I sat for one year in the library to review the literature on autism and consulted people including a pediatrician who has a son with autism and asthma and when the asthma was treated the autism lessened,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “It became obvious to me there was a connection. Many important insights in the literature and from people I knew pointed in exactly the same direction.” His discoveries led to the 2014 founding of his startup, Cell-El Therapeutics. Gone Fishing Animal studies he did in Israel confirmed that autoimmune antibodies present in some mothers of children with ASD bind to fetal brain proteins and may be a marker or risk factor for ASD. In 2013, Gesundheit was lead author of a multinational review of epidemiological, serological, and epigenetic evidence for the relationship between the immune system and many cases of ASD, published in the Journal of Autoimmunity. One coauthor was immunologist David Naor from Hebrew University. Gesundheit got Health Ministry approval to “go on a fishing expedition” for immunological biomarkers of triple-A (autoimmune antibody associated) autism in the blood of 360 ASD children, with typically developed children as a control, aged 3 to 11. “I asked each parent if they have an autoimmune disease, and many of them told me nobody asked them that before, but we have actually many autoimmune conditions in our family,” he tells ISRAEL21c. RayBiotech lab in Atlanta confirmed that out of 1,000 markers studied, about 30 showed significant statistical differences between ASD and non-ASD children. Israeli biostatisticians found that in 88% of the more than 200 blood samples, ASD could be diagnosed objectively by the immune profile they identified as diagnostic markers. “Accuracy of 88% is not perfect medically,” says Gesundheit. “I think the other 12% was not proven to have a connection because there is some other cause or because we didn’t identify all the markers.” First Objective Diagnostic Tool for ASD Still, he found the results encouraging enough to embark on developing what could be the world’s first objective medical diagnostic tool for ASD. Today, ASD is diagnosed by observational behavioral tests conducted by neurologists, psychologists and psychiatrists. Since these tests assess communication, they cannot be performed until a child is two or three. “Autism was first described in 1943 and since then there hasn’t been anything significantly new to understand the disease mechanism as a basis for diagnosis and treatment,”,” says Gesundheit. “The word ‘spectrum’ doesn’t tell me biologically why something in the synapses between neurons is not signaling. We have no clue and it’s a disaster. A lot of divorce, depressive disorders, unemployment and suicide surrounds families with an autistic child.” Gesundheit will now take “the five best markers from the 30” and develop them into a diagnostic blood test over the next few years. This test could be given to babies with typical early signs of ASD — like not smiling or poor eye contact by six months old — to offer biological proof for observational tests done in toddlerhood. The blood tests could also be a basis for early intervention. “If we can sort out immunological markers in the blood sample, we will enable an objective diagnosis and that is the basis of many therapeutic approaches. The diagnostic tool might be used to monitor the success of any treatment as well. This is an exciting new chapter for the world for autism.” Immunotherapy Cell-El Therapeutics’ other purpose is to develop an immunotherapy protocol for triple-A autism. Currently there are no FDA-approved treatments for the core symptoms of ASD. One promising possibility is infusing autologous stem cells (from the patient’s own cells) with mesenchymal stem cells, which restore normal immune function. Gesundheit published a study on this and is working with medical experts in Europe who have observed remarkable improvements in ASD children following stem-cell transplants. “I’m not sure we can target treatments to specific social or communication symptoms, but we can open an interesting avenue for future research,” he says. “Optimal dosage, ideal age for treatment, and number and timing of treatments remain open questions for our clinical research. We do know that younger children are more responsive to immuno-modulation.” It may also be possible to look for immunological biomarkers in the blood of mothers of autistic children and treat the mother before further pregnancies. “If we can do prevention that would be totally incredible,” says Gesundheit. According to the World Health Organization, one in 160 children is on the autism spectrum and the numbers are growing each year. The Team Cell-El’s team includes two seasoned PhDs: Chief Scientific Officer Ronald Ellis, who has helped bring several major vaccines and therapeutics to the market over the past 35 years (and was one of ISRAEL21c’s experts in our webinar about the Covid-19 vaccine) and Fred Samuels, head of diagnostics, who has 35 years of senior management experience in commercializing diagnostic products. The Swiss-born Gesundheit (whose name is a German for “health”) previously worked at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and at Soroka and Hadassah medical centers in Israel. Gesundheit also heads a startup called Rapo Yerapeh that’s investigating the use of oncolytic viruses to treat metastatic tumors, and he is researching an existing antiviral as a treatment for Covid-19. For information on Cell-El’s diagnostic studies, click here. For information on another subset of autism discovered at the Israel Center for Autism Research, click here. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Colon Lining Releases Hydrogen Peroxide to Protect the Body from Gut Microbes

AHA Publisher — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 08:00:47 +0000

University of California – Davis Health via News-Medical Net – Scientists at UC Davis Health have discovered that an enzyme in the colon lining releases hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) – a known disinfecting compound- to protect the body from gut microbes. Their study, published Dec. 9 in the journal Cell Host and Microbe, sheds light on the way microorganisms are spatially organized in the colon. It also calls for a new approach to treating gut inflammation. Most microbes reside in the large intestine, a naturally low-oxygen environment. They form a community called the gut microbiota. More than half of the human body consists of microbes that do not tolerate oxygen very well.” Andreas Bäumler, professor of medical microbiology and immunology and lead author on the study The gut microbiota is kept away from the colon’s surface. This separation is essential to avoid inflammation caused by unnecessary immune responses to gut microbes. Scientists believed the spatial separation is maintained by oxygen released by cells to prevent microbes from coming too close to the intestinal lining. This study upends that theory. “We looked at the spatial relationships between the bacteria in the gut and its host, the colon,” Bäumler said. “We found that cells in the colon’s lining release hydrogen peroxide- not oxygen- to limit microbial growth.” NOX1, an enzyme found in the intestinal lining, provides a significant source of H2O2 in the colon. The naturally generated H2O2 serves as a filter regulating the location of the microbiota in the colon. Pathogens that utilize hydrogen peroxide can only do so when they are directly attached to the intestinal lining. This finding suggests that the body uses the disinfectant to protect the mucosal surface. Meanwhile, the microbial communities at a distance from the colon surface remain unharmed. Treating Gut Inflammation with Natural Filter Restoration, Not Antibiotics When the body experiences an imbalance in the gut microbial community, it suffers from dysbiosis, a gastrointestinal condition. Dysbiosis may cause inflammation and symptoms such as nausea, upset stomach and bloating. Traditional treatments of dysbiosis rely mainly on the use of antibiotics or probiotics to target the bacteria. Findings from the new study indicate the need for a different approach to treating gut inflammation and dysbiosis. They pointed to the opportunity of restoring host functions instead of eliminating microbes. “We need to shift the focus of gut inflammation treatments from targeting bacteria to fixing habitat filters of the host and restoring their functionality,” Bäumler said. To read the original article click here.

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Could Pineapples Be a New Weapon Against COVID-19?

AHA Publisher — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 07:00:52 +0000

Dr. Tomislav Meštrović, MD, Ph.D. via News-Medical Net – Results of a recent research endeavor from the United States indicate that bromelain or bromelain rich pineapple stem may be utilized as an antiviral agent against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but also for potential future coronavirus outbreaks. This exciting paper is currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is already well-known for its rapid human-to-human transmission, responsible for the relentless pandemic spread of dangerous COVID-19. But every day, we learn a bit more about SARS-CoV-2 immunology. The initial interaction between Transmembrane Serine Protease 2 (TMPRSS2), primed spike glycoprotein (S-protein), and host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) is a pre-requisite for cell entry and COVID-19 pathogenesis. At the moment, infected patients are treated with different antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antimalarial agents. Nevertheless, the response rate is relatively modest, and there is a need to confirm both the safety and efficacy profile of those drugs against COVID-19. But repurposing existing drugs or develop new (either virus-based or host-based) antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 is still a way forward. The pertinent question is, could we maybe use bromelain – a dietary supplement isolated from pineapple stem used to treat patients with pain, inflammation, and thrombosis – for COVID-19 patients as well? This hypothesis was tackled by researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) in Silver Springin the United States, with rather exciting findings. Bromelain inhibits / cleaves the expression of ACE-2 and TMPRSS2, it cleaves / degrades SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and inhibits S-Ectodomain binding and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Cloning and Expressing Recombinant Proteins Since ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 are full of cysteine residues that establish disulfide bonds to support the protein structure, this research group primarily appraised the effect of bromelain (which is a cysteine protease) on ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 expression. The full-length genome sequences of 45 SARS-CoV-2 isolates were analyzed in-depth. At the same time, the African green monkey kidney epithelial cells (Vero E6) was chosen as the primary cell line utilized in this study. The researchers cloned and subsequently expressed SARS-CoV-2 S-protein ectodomain that contains insect cell secretion signal. Next, they have determined the interaction between the purified S-Ectodomain and human recombinant ACE-2 using surface plasmon resonance technology (i.e., real-time detection of biomolecular interactions). Finally, they have expressed SARS-CoV-2 S-Ectodomain tagged with a green fluorescent protein in Tni insect cells from Trichoplusia ni (i.e., cabbage looper). Surface resonance plasmon and Luminex assay were used to reveal the purified S-Ectodomain binding to human ACE-2, as well as immunoreactivity with COVID-19 positive samples. Multiple Ways of Halting SARS-CoV-2 “We demonstrate that bromelain (isolated from pineapple stem and used as a dietary supplement) treatment diminishes the expression of ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 in VeroE6 cells and dramatically lowers the expression of S-Ectodomain”, say study authors. More specifically, it was shown that bromelain decreases the expression of both ACE-2 and TMPRSS2 in a dose-dependent manner in Vero E6 cells. Moreover, bromelain’s cysteine proteolytic activity was notably higher in ACE-2 when compared to TMPRSS2. Even more important was the finding that the bromelain treatment was able to halt the interaction between S-Ectodomain and Vero E6 cells, significantly diminishing the SARS-CoV-2 infection in this cell line. Furthermore, this study indicates that the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein has both highly sialylated N- and O-linked glycans, and bromelain managed to cleave it. Consequently, a loss of negatively charged sialic acid groups in the N- and O-linked glycans may cause a decreased mobility shift of S-Ectodomain. Bromelain as a Broad-Spectrum Antiviral “For the first time, our results demonstrate that bromelain can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection by targeting all three host ACE-2 and TMPRSS2, and SARS-CoV-2 S-proteins”, summarize study authors in this bioRxiv paper. Previous studies have demonstrated that bromelain can be utilized to treat patients with inflammation and pain and that the compound is well absorbed and with prolonged biological activity. All of these advantages can be exploited when treating patients with COVID-19. In conclusion, either bromelain or bromelain rich pineapple stem represents a viable option as an antiviral for treating not only COVID-19 but also potential future outbreaks of other coronaviruses. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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Ultraviolet Light Can Reduce Covid Transmission Indoors

AHA Publisher — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 07:00:21 +0000

Nicky Blackburn via Israel21c – An international team of scientists are advocating the use of ultraviolet light indoors as a cheap and efficient way to inactivate the coronavirus. One of the biggest questions facing us these days is how we can make our indoor spaces safe from Covid-19 contagion. Studies have shown that we are far more likely to catch the virus in closed indoor spaces like offices, schools, public transport, museums and health centers rather than outdoors. A team of international scientists, including Prof. Ido Kaminer of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, studied various methods to prevent coronavirus contagion in indoor spaces, and based on their findings, recently published in ACS Nano, advocate the use of ultraviolet light as a “particularly efficient, easily deployable, and economically affordable” way to inactivate the virus. The experts, from the fields of virology, immunology, aerosols, architecture, and physics, researched currently available UV-C sources, such as fluorescent lamps, microcavity plasmas, and LEDs. They concluded that by applying this type of light on the inside of the ventilation systems of buildings and in shared indoor spaces while not in use, it will be possible to quickly and efficiently deactivate both airborne and surface-deposited SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The team also explored the cost of deploying such a technology and argue that a global capital investment of a few billion dollars in UV-C sources could protect more than a billion indoor workers worldwide. “The COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is posing an extraordinary challenge that requires swift worldwide action for the massive deployment of affordable and ready-to-apply measures to drastically reduce its transmission probabilities in indoor spaces,” the report said. “Doing so will allow for the eventual return to conventional activities such as working at the office, going to school, or even attending entertainment events.” Recent studies show that Covid-19 virus transmission follows two main paths. It can be transmitted through the air in droplets exhaled by infected individuals and inhaled by healthy individuals, or it can be left on surfaces from exhalations or hand contact. Filters and chemicals are possible solutions to minimize this problem, but their installation may be costly and time-consuming. In addition, some chemicals that are effective for virus disinfection, such as ozone, can be harmful if misused. The other experts include professors Javier García de Abajo (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies), Andreas Meyerhans (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Joan Rosell-Llompart (University Rovira i Virgili), Rufino Javier Hernández (University of the Basque Country) and Tilman Sanchez-Elsner (University of Southampton). To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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