Auto immune only attacks parts of the body?

brenan

This has puzzled me for a while now:

A friend of mine has been told he has an auto-immune disease that has attacked
his right eye - something called ocre or maybe just ocr ?

If my understanding was correct that an auto imune disease can attack certain types of tissues why wouldnt he have this in both eyes? Why would it only attack the tissues
in one eye? He has had this for a few years now and apparently it cant be cured.

Aero51

As anther example, my mom has multiple sclerosis. When I was younger (15 years ago) it was only affecting her right leg. Since then it has spread and plaque has accumulated in her brain affecting virtually her whole body. In my Mom's case, her white blood cells were attacking the fatty tissue surrounding her nerves in her left leg. Why this happens, I don't know. I do know that rabies and worms can be used to treat auto-immune diseases. But, you cant make a profit off of administering those treatments so they are not...administered. Vitamin D is crucial to ward off or delay certain types of auto-immune disorders such as MS too.

Drakkith

Uhh, do you have any kind of reference for this? Rabies is a deadly disease with practically no chance of survival if you don't act in time. I have a difficult time believing it can be used to treat auto-immune diseases without some serious alteration of the virus.

Aero51

You are correct about the rabies. That was used for cancer. The rabies virus tended to attack cancerous cells before healthy cells. I misspoke.

RabbitWho

I'd take my chances with cancer over rabies any day.

Aero51

Ok here's the deal. As a 23 year old, I have the memmory capacity of a 70 year old. Why, who knows...but it's annoying. Here is the article I was referring to in my first post about fighting cancer and autoimmune diseases.

With cancer the pathogen was streptococcus that attacked the infected cells. Here is a cool article (and website):Edit Unacceptable source

With MS, there is some good promise that parasites such as worms are an effective treatment. The article is short, I found the actual .gov site detailing the second phase of the clinical trials but it didnt provide useful insight to someone not in medicine.

Edit: Unacceptable source

Evo

Aero, please find links to actual scientific research posted in accepted peer reviewed journals. Those sources were not acceptable.

brenan

So does anyone have any information on the question that I was actually interested in?
Or should I just go start another thread?

Evo

It is against the rules to start more than one thread on a topic.

Drakkith

Not really, as without knowing the specific disorder I don't think much can be said other than about autoimmune disorders in general. Have you tried reading up on the subject? Here's a link to get you started if you haven't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune

brenan

Is it against the rules to flood a thread with off topic posts ?

brenan

Thanks drakkith but this is not the sort of question anyone can just pick up an answer to
on wikipedia.

I have checked and the specific disease is called occular cicatric pemphigoid (may be different spelling)
So the question becomes why does that disease (or ones like it) attack one eye and not the other?

Drakkith

Ah, here we are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicatricial_pemphigoid
(Just so people can take a quick peek at the disorder if they want)

brenan

Yes that looks like the one thanks Drakkith.
So why would something like that only attack one eye and not the other?
It doesn't make any sense to me.

Drakkith

I honestly don't know. It may be that we don't know at all. Although I sincerely hope someone will be able to help you.

SW VandeCarr

Autoimmune disease can be generalized (i.e. lupus) or organ specific (thyroiditis). It can be cell based (T cell lymphocytes) or humoral (antibodies in the blood and extracelluar fluids). Immune memory is acquired in pre-natal and early post natal life. This memory is based on the elaboration of human leukocyte antigen (HLA). The purging of anti-self lymphocytes in the thymus gland occurs during this period, but it's never complete. It's thought we all have some low level of anti self or autoimmune activity, but it's under genetic control. Some people have genetic predispositions to these diseases which interfere with their tolerance (look up immune tolerance in the wiki). Environmental factors also play a role in terms of stimulating immune responses to foreign antigens which "cross over" causing autoimmune activity. As we grow older, this becomes more common. Breakdown of tissue integrity may also allow "unrecognized" self antigens to be exposed, such as in the basement membranes of the epithelium of the inner lining of the eye. Once the autoimmune process is initiated at one such location, it may remain localized for some time.

http://www.sagepub.com/moody6study/s...mos-Casals.pdf

". .the elderly may originate altered cells which are not
removed, and immune responses may then cross-react
with the normal cell constituents, leading to the
autoimmune response. It has been hypothesized that
autoantibodies may play a role in the general
deterioration of the elderly through their participation
in subclinical chronic tissue damage.10,22–24 In Table 2,
we summarize the results of the main studies that have
analysed the prevalence of autoantibodies in the
elderly.20,25–48"