Re: OT: Impact Of Smoking And Genes On Rheumatoid Arthritis

January 9, 2006

Oh thank you for this. I have been trying to quit for many years but still smoke

when under a lot of presure. And let me tell you with being divorced and having

a son in and out of mental hospital and having a son who is severly mentally

challenged and all his bad behavior and how much I have to watch him, and then

having Jra too I feel so uncapeable at times but then when all turns out good

for that day I feel better. I need a good excuse to stop smoking and can't seem

to at all. But maybe this will help me.

hugs; paulette

Georgina <gmckin11@...> wrote:

Impact Of Smoking And Genes On Rheumatoid Arthritis

Article Date: 05 Jan 2006

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=35748

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common systemic

autoimmune diseases, and one of the least understood. Smoking is the major

known environmental risk factor for RA, though little is known about the

mechanisms involved. HLA-DR shared epitope (SE) genes are a widely

recognized genetic risk factor for RA, though little is known about how

these genes affect autoimmune reactions that lead to chronic inflammation

and progressive joint and organ damage.

To better understand the interactions between smoking and HLA-DR SE

genes in RA, a team of researchers in Sweden focused on the disease's

distinctive autoimmune hallmark: citrulline, an amino acid not normally

present in protein. While extremely rare in healthy individuals and

relatively rare in other inflammatory conditions, citrulline-modified

proteins are common in about two-thirds of RA patients and may be an

underlying factor in the development of the disease. To investigate whether

smoking and SE genes trigger immune reactions to citrullinated proteins, the

team conducted a case-control study involving patients with recent-onset RA.

The results, featured in the January 2006 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism

(http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/arthritis), suggest that smokers

with SE genes are more susceptible to anticitrulline antibody-positive RA.

The study's 930 early RA patients, drawn from the Epidemiological

Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Group, ranged in age from 18 to

70 years. 383 healthy controls, drawn from the blood bank of northern

Sweden, were matched for age, gender, and residential area. All participants

completed questionnaires about their past and present smoking habits, as

well as genotyping profiles. In addition, bronchial fluid was obtained from

a representative sample of RA patients, including both current heavy smokers

and lifelong non-smokers, and tested with immunostaining for the presence of

citrullinated protein in cells.

Based on their series of experiments and comparisons, the researchers

found that a history of smoking increases the risk for RA, but only for

individuals who test positive for anticitrulline antibodies, regardless of

the presence of SE genes. Similarly, inheriting HLA-DR SE genes in a single

copy, as well as in double copies, increases the risk for RA, but only for

individuals who test positive for anticitrulline antibodies, including

individuals who have never smoked. Yet, for individuals who test positive

for anticitrulline antibodies, the interaction of smoking and carrying 2

copies of the SE gene dramatically increases the risk for developing RA--by

21 times.

" The remarkable gene-environment interaction observed in the

case-control study, together with the immunostaining for citrullinated

proteins, might now provide a clue to the molecular mechanisms of importance

for disease development in a subset of RA patients, " notes team spokesperson

Dr. Lars Klareskog of Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. " We may thereby be

given some new opportunities to both predict and understand the onset of RA

and to interfere with RA-inducing events before clinical symptoms are

apparent. "

Article: " A New Model for an Etiology of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Smoking

May Trigger HLA-DR (Shared Epitope)-Restricted Immune Reactions to

Autoantigens Modified by Citrullination, " Lars Klareskog, Patrik Stolt,

Karin Lundberg, Henrik Källberg, Camilla Bengtsson, Johan Grunewald, Johan

Rönnelid, Helena Erlandsson , Ann- Ulfgren, Solbritt

Rantapää-Dahlqvist, Anders Eklund, Leonid Padyukov, Lars Alfredsson, and the

Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis Study Group, Arthritis

& Rheumatism, January 2006, 54:1, pp. 53-61.

January 9, 2006

I have to say it will make a difference when you do it. My brother was nearly

killed in a work injury in May. Thankfully he has had a miraculous recovery

except for a tibia that will not heal. It is crushed and they are going to take

him back in to surgery to pull the rod and pins out to roto rooter it and hope

it will heal this time. He does not smoke but chews tobacco. The doctor said

that his odds of healing were over 70% less with tobacco in his system. I

certainly won't be easy with all your stressors but my mom said she couldn't

just stop she had to replace it with something so she chewed a ton of gum. Best

of luck to you!

e

Ginger Sunshine <pct777@...> wrote:

Oh thank you for this. I have been trying to quit for many years but still

smoke when under a lot of presure. And let me tell you with being divorced and

having a son in and out of mental hospital and having a son who is severly

mentally challenged and all his bad behavior and how much I have to watch him,

and then having Jra too I feel so uncapeable at times but then when all turns

out good for that day I feel better. I need a good excuse to stop smoking and

can't seem to at all. But maybe this will help me.