Mycoplasma--The Missing Link

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> http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm?ID=3066

>

>

> Mycoplasmas - The Missing Link in Fatiguing Illnesses

>

> by Guthrie, R.Ph.

> ImmuneSupport.com

> 07-18-2001

>

> . Mysterious parasites

> . Immune Disruption

> . How Mycoplasmas Operate

> . Detecting Mycoplasmas

> . Current Mycoplasma Research

> . Resources

>

> ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduced with the kind permission

> of Alternative Medicine magazine, September, 2001 (#43).

> For subscription information call 800-333-HEAL (4325).

> Website: http://www.alternativemedicine.com

>

> Guthrie R.Ph, is a clinical pharmacist with hospital,

> business and residential experience, who researches scientifically

> validated integrative medical approaches.

>

>

> These mysterious microorganisms can play a major role in a wide

> range of diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue

> and fibromyalgia syndromes, multiple sclerosis, Gulf War illness,

> Crohn's disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, diabetes and

> even aggressive cancers. Without proper diagnosis and treatment of

> mycoplasma infections, curing these conditions can be difficult or

> impossible.

>

> Staff Sergeant Sharron Nicolson, Crew Chief of an Army Blackhawk

> helicopter, was happy to see everyone return safely from their last

> deep mission into Iraqi territory. She and her unit would soon join

> the thousands of U.S. military personnel headed home from the Gulf

> War, and Sharron was looking forward to finishing her pilot

> training. But shortly after returning to the U.S. in 1991, Sharron

> began experiencing constant fatigue, muscle and joint pain and

> other debilitating symptoms similar to those associated with

> Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). She found it impossible to meet the

> demands of flight school and sadly realized her dream of a flying

> career was over.

>

> When routine medical tests revealed no answers, Sharron started

> looking for more help. At the time, she was unaware that over

> 50,000 soldiers had returned from the Gulf War with similar

> symptoms. (this number has now grown to over 100,000.)

> Fortunately, Sharron had the advantage of being the daughter of two

> top researchers in molecular and cellular biology: Drs Garth L. and

> L. Nicolson.

>

> At the time of Sharron's return home in the early 1990s, Garth

> Nicolson, Ph.D., was an esteemed researcher and academic, holding

> the Bruton, Jr. Chair in Cancer Research at the University of

> Texas M.D. Center. Nicolson, Ph.D., a former

> instructor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at

> Baylor College of Medicine, was also a world-renowned molecular

> biologist. The Nicolsons were compelled into action on behalf of

> their daughter and other veterans whose disabling symptoms were

> being misdiagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder and/or other

> conditions.

>

> The Nicolsons realized that Sharron was experiencing similar

> symptoms to what had experienced years earlier. The cause of

> 's pain and fatigue had finally been diagnosed as an infection

> of invasive mycoplasmas. The Nicolsons knew these little-known

> microscopic masters of hide-and-seek were generally responsive to

> certain antibiotics. They put Sharron on a course of doxycycline

> antibiotic therapy and she dramatically improved.

>

> Word spread and members of other Airborne and Special Force Units

> who had similar symptoms began asking for assistance. The

> Nicolsons, anxious to help, began researching what became known as

> Gulf War Illness (GWI). It did not take long for them to realize

> that there was a significant overlap in the symptoms of GWI, CFS

> and FMS and other conditions that fall under the umbrella term of

> `fatiguing illnesses.'

>

>

> Mysterious parasites

>

> Mycoplasmas are the smallest self-replicating organisms known to

> science. Viruses are even smaller, but they lack the genetic

> machinery to self-replicate. There are hundreds of types of

> mycoplasmas that can be found in plants, insects and animals, but

> only a few can be found in the blood and tissues throughout the

> human body. Not all mycoplasmas found in humans are pathogenic

> (disease-causing).

>

> Mycoplasmas have some of the simplest genomes among bacteria. The

> best known pathogenic mycoplasma, M. pneumoniae, the cause of

> `walking pneumonia,' contains only 677 protein-coding sequences

> (by comparison, E. coli contains about 4,000). Mycopasmas do not

> contain the genes needed for amino and fatty acid or vitamin

> synthesis; thus, they need to steal certain amino acids, fats,

> vitamins and other nutrients from host cells in order to survive.

> Simply put, they are parasitic bacteria. Garth Nicolson explains,

> " Once in the cell, they steal lipids (fats) like cholesterol from

> the mitochondria, the components of a cell that produces energy.

> This makes the mitochondria `leaky,' and they lose electrons. This

> is similar to a battery running down when the insulation around the

> battery is removed. This may be why patients with intracellular

> pathogenic mycoplasmas are almost always fatigued. They have run

> their cellular batteries down, so that less high energy molecules

> are available, and they are exhausted at the cellular level. "

>

>

> Immune Disruption

>

> Mycoplasmas can also disrupt the normal orchestration and

> organization of the host's immune system. They can cause

> lymphocytes (white blood cells that bear the major responsibility

> of the immune system) to secrete inflammatory cytokines (proteins

> that facilitate cell-to-cell communication), which leads to

> swelling, inflammation and either stimulation or suppression of the

> immune system.

>

> Because pathogenic mycoplasmas leaving a cell they have infected

> can incorporate much of the host's cell surface material into their

> own surface structure, they can instigate an autoimmune response in

> which the immune system starts attacking the host's own cells, a

> process that can result in severe tissue damage and pain.

>

> Meanwhile the mycoplasmas evade the immune system by hiding inside

> host cells or fusing with the cellular membrane of the host cells.

> Certain pathogenic mycoplasmas can also invade lymphocytes and

> disrupt their functioning without provoking an immune response.

> Using a trick known as " molecular mimicry, " mycoplasmas can even

> closely resemble host structures to fool the immune system into

> thinking that they are normal host cells.

>

> After invading host cells, mycoplasmas can trigger the release of

> " reactive oxygen " free radicals that modify the RNA and DNA of the

> cells, an event that can eventually lead to malignant

> transformation. This phenomenon has been observed in a laboratory

> study in which benign (non-cancerous) cells infected by mycoplasmas

> became irreversibly malignant (cancerous) after 18 cell divisions.

> Dr. Nicolson has been working with two colleagues, Drs Darryl See

> and Ferre Akbarpour, of the Immune Institute in Huntington Beach.

> Their research has found that nearly 90% of certain late stage

> cancer patients show infection with pathogenic mycoplasmas. These

> mycoplasmas appear to drive the progression of cancer cells, making

> them more malignant and metastatic (capable of spreading throughout

> the body).

>

> Mycoplasmas can also invade the lining of blood vessels, where they

> appear to facilitate the release of biochemicals that can cause

> vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels due to infection) and the

> formation of plaque inside blood vessel wall surfaces.

>

>

> How Mycoplasmas Operate

>

> Mycoplasmas are well equipped to play biological sleight-of-hand,

> appearing then disappearing, changing shape, shuffling their

> surface components, ducking into cells, then parading as normal

> citizens of the human flora dressed in clothes stolen from the

> cells they invaded. They're elusive because they are pleomorphic

> (structurally changing). They do not have rigid cell walls like

> most bacteria; instead they possess fluid lipid (water insoluble

> fat) outer surfaces, and like tiny jellyfish, they can squeeze,

> bend and move into tight spaces. They can also slide right through

> laboratory and hospital filters used to produce or maintain

> sterility -- making them one of the most common contaminants in

> diagnostic laboratories and vaccine manufacturing. In one recent

> study of vaccines, mycoplasmas were found to contaminate about six

> percent of commercial vaccines.

>

> These microorganisms have been quite successful in adapting to many

> environments, infecting everything from insects to elephants,

> plants to people. Generally, they are species-specific, but there

> appear to be many exceptions. Garth Nicolson relates more than one

> case in which the pets of GWI or CFS patients were exhibiting

> similar symptoms as their owners, and then tested positive for the

> same mycoplasmas. No one knows for sure how contagious mycoplasmas

> are, but it appears transmission may occur among infected people in

> close proximity for extended periods of time.

>

> Not everyone who is exposed becomes sick. For example, when

> Nicolson studied Gulf War veterans' families who became sick with

> symptoms similar to GWI, he found that not every member of the

> family became sick, but those that did become ill had the same

> infection as found in the sick veteran.

>

>

> Detecting Mycoplasmas

>

> When the Nicolsons began to explore the connection between GWI and

> mycoplasma, they first had to figure out how to screen people with

> GWI signs and symptoms for the presence of these pathogens. This

> was easier said than done. Since mycoplasmas are extremely small,

> change shape and lack rigid and distinctive cell walls, they're

> impossible to find using conventional microbiology techniques. They

> won't grow in a standard culture medium, and they are not usually

> revealed by standard tests that look for antibodies (proteins made

> by a white blood cell as a primary defense against foreign

> substances). Some people do show antibody responses to certain

> mycoplasmas, but antibody tests are still not specific enough to

> make a diagnosis.

>

> Using a technique called nucleoprotein gene tracking developed by

> the Nicolsons, they were able to identify mycoplasma genetic

> elements in white blood cells of GWI patients. However,

> conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests performed by

> Army pathologists did not confirm the presence of mycoplasma DNA.

>

> Eventually, the Nicolsons developed a new PCR test based on

> techniques used by forensic pathologists to test for DNA from crime

> scenes. This test revealed that over 40% of the GWI patients were

> positive for " invasive " mycoplasma (not mycoplasma in superficial

> sites such as nose, throat and genitourinary tract).

>

> The Nicolsons found mycoplasmas, especially M. fermentans, inside

> tissues and in certain white blood cells -- the very cells that are

> normally involved in the destruction of pathogenic invaders.

> " Mycoplasmas are not found systemically in most normal subjects --

> only a few percent of asymptomatic subjects have evidence of

> mycoplasma in their blood. I don't consider oral mycoplasma, or

> mycoplasma at other superficial sites to be evidence of an

> infection. It is more likely simple bacterial colonization, and

> unless these mycoplasma invade the epithelial cell layer (a thin

> layer of tissue that covers a surface or lines a cavity), they are

> probably benign nonpathogenic residents,' explains Nicolson.

>

> The researchers' results were significant and published in several

> journals. Other investigators, especially those working with Gulf

> War Vets, were able to duplicate the results, but the Nicolson's

> work was largely dismissed or ignored by the Department of Defense.

> However, in February, 2000, psychiatrist Lt. Col. Engel,

> M.D., director of the Gulf War Illness Center at Walter Army

> Medical Center, presented pivotal information to a CFS coordinating

> board at the National Institutes of Health. A study conducted

> independently for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans

> Affairs demonstrated that approximately 40% of more than 1,600 GWI

> patients were positive for mycoplasma infections, and 80% of those

> were positive for M. fermentans. Lt. Col. Engel also stated that he

> felt that these infections might also be an important cause of CFS.

> The study findings nearly duplicated the figures that the Nicolsons

> had reported earlier: 45% positive for mycoplasma; 80% with M.

> fermentans.

>

> Currently, other prominent researchers are corroborating the role

> of mycoplasma in disease. The number of known conditions in which

> mycoplasmas play a role is growing, thanks to advances in

> detection. Mycoplasmas are now said to be contributors, or at least

> cofactors, in a number of conditions, including CFS/CFIDS,

> fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), lupus, multiple sclerosis (MS),

> psoriasis, scleroderma, Chrohn's diseases, solid cancers, leukemia,

> lymphoma, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), pelvic inflammatory

> disease (PID), asthma, atypical pneumonia, Sjogren's syndrome,

> interstitial cystitis, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases.

> Mycoplasmas have also been associated with a variety if autoimmune

> diseases that can cause definite changes in nerve conduction,

> demyelation (a degenerative process that erodes away the myelin

> sheath that normally protects nerve fibers) and sensitivity.

>

> Dr. Nicolson says that the role of mycoplasmas in various illnesses

> and diseases is now gradually being accepted, especially in those

> once long-suspected as " psychological. " Acceptance is due to the

> recognition that symptoms cannot be explained solely by

> psychological criteria, and because discrete clinical markers have

> been discovered. For example, the vascultitis (inflammation of

> blood vessels) found in mycoplasma-positive patients correlates

> with evidence of mycoplasma-induced abnormalities in blood cells

> and proteins related to blood clotting.

>

>

> Current Mycoplasma Research

>

> Recently, Dr. Nicolson has focused on various autoimmune

> neurological diseases such as ALS, MS, Lyme disease and others. For

> example, approximately 85% of patients with ALS ( " Lou Gehrig's

> disease " ) tested positive for systemic mycoplasma infections, and

> most of those infections involve M. fermentans and/or M. hominis.

>

> Dr. Nicolson is working closely with Drs. See and Akbarpour on ALS,

> a condition in which patients lose control of their motor and

> skeletal muscles over a period of two to five years. Their research

> revealed that almost all ALS patients have co-infections with a

> virus from the enterovirus family (a virus related to the polio

> virus that replicated mostly in the gastrointestinal tract) -- and

> mycoplasmas. The three doctors have been conducting a clinical

> treatment study of ALS utilizing antibiotics, antivirals and nerve

> growth factors. They are seeing positive results so far, as

> measured by increases in muscle strength.

>

> Other illnesses often have multiple strains of mycoplasmas, or

> mycoplasmas combined with co-infections of other bacteria or

> viruses. " In recent published studies from our laboratory, most CFS

> and FMS patients had multiple mycoplasmal infections. The number of

> different mycoplasmal species in these patients increased with the

> number of years the patients were sick and with the severity of

> their illness, " says Dr. Nicolson.

>

> " We have found that when the few asymptomatic subjects have blood

> mycoplasmal infections, they have only one species, versus when we

> examine patients who are sick with various chronic illnesses, they

> usually have multiple species of mycoplasmas and other infections

> such as the cytomegalovirus. In Lyme disease, we often find

> mycoplasmal co-infections, most frequently, M. fermentans, along

> with the Borrelia that causes it. This makes sense when you

> consider that insects, such as the ticks that carry the Borrelia,

> also can carry mycoplasmas. Dr. Eli Mordechai of Medical

> Diagnostics Lab of New Jersey has exactly the same findings in Lyme

> disease patients. "

>

> All the researchers above agree that long-term antibiotics must be

> initiated to treat mycoplasmal infections. Additional strategies

> must be applied to protect and strengthen the immune system and

> provide essential nutrients and vitamins.

>

> " We always try to use the least toxic approaches in working with

> pathologies, so we use a lot of natural products, " Dr. See says.

> For example, probiotics and undenatured whey protein isolates are

> used to support the GI tract -- a combination that helps prevent

> overgrowth of undesirable microorganisms. " However, " adds Dr. See,

> " in our experience, and in the literature, we have found no other

> way to deal with mycoplasmas than fairly long-term treatment with

> certain antibiotics. " Fortunately, the Nicolsons and their

> colleagues have succeeded in helping many veterans and others

> infected with mycoplasmas, but controversies surrounding their work

> and these mysterious microorganisms still persist.

>

> Says Dr. Nicolson, " Future efforts to explain and treat a variety

> of illnesses that currently have unknown etiologies (causes) will

> undoubtedly focus more on chronic infections as underlying causes

> or as opportunistic infections in immune-impaired patients. We have

> found that chronic infections caused by mycoplasmas, viruses and

> other microorganisms cannot be ignored, because these patients will

> remain ill and not recover from their illnesses if these infections

> remain untreated.

>

>

> Resources

>

> Additional information on mycoplasma treatment, yeast overgrowth,

> nutrition, and treating multiple infections associated with

> mycoplasmas can be found on the Institute for Molecular Medicine's

> Web site: http://www.immed.org

>

>

>

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