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New immune-system disease found in Asians; causes AIDS-like symptoms

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C

ComputerMKII

Banned
(CNN) -- Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified a new disease among people in Asia that causes AIDS-like symptoms but is not associated with HIV.

The study, released in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday, found patients with the disease were making antibodies that attacked their immune systems.

"We all make molecules and proteins in the body that tell our immune system how to function properly," said Dr. Sarah Browne, a clinical investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH and the lead author on the study.

"They tell different immune cells when to turn on and when to start fighting infection," she said. "We found a large number of the patients that we studied with serious opportunistic infections make an antibody that blocks the function of one of these molecules, which is interferon-gamma."

Without functioning interferon-gamma, people become more susceptible to certain types of infections -- infections people with working immune systems normally don't get, she said.

The disease is being called an adult-onset immunodeficiency syndrome because it strikes adults. Cases date back to 2004, with most of them occurring in Thailand and Taiwan. The NIH has been studying the disease since 2005.

"It's rare -- more prevalent over in Southeast Asia," Browne told CNN. "But we have been diagnosing it here in the U.S. in individuals of Asian descent."

So far NIH has seen about 12 cases, all of them in people of Asian descent. According to Browne, most patients survive. There have been deaths in other countries, she said, but did not know how many. No one has died in the United States.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, says it's important to note the disease is not contagious.

"It is not a virus, that's the first thing. It's not a new AIDS-like virus," Fauci said. "It's a syndrome that was noticed and discovered in Asia where people get opportunistic infections similar to HIV/AIDS, but the cause of the syndrome is not an infection like HIV."

Fauci said researchers "found the people have an autoimmunity, where their bodies are making antibodies against a protein that's important in fighting infection.

"The reason the body is making that antibody is unclear but it isn't a virus like HIV that's causing it," he said. " It's autoimmune disease, and people get secondary infections similar to AIDS."

The study was already in the early stages in 2009, when Kim Nguyen, a 62-year-old Vietnamese woman from Tennessee, came to NIH suffering from symptoms that would be linked to the mystery disease.

A little more than 200 people -- almost exclusively from Thailand and Taiwan between the ages of 18 and 78 -- were studied. All were HIV-negative.

"We want to understand what triggers people to make these antibodies in the first place," Browne said. "And we want to use that information to guide treatment -- because really, when you treat the infection you're treating the symptom. You're not treating the underlying cause."

Right now, doctors are simply treating the infections. For many of the patients, that's sufficient, Browne said, but for those cases where it's not, they are trying to find ways to target the antibodies themselves by lowering the antibody levels and trying to reverse the immunodeficiency.

Both Fauci and Browne believe a combination of both genetic and environmental factors are most likely at play, but don't yet know what those factors are.

"Overall it appears to be a chronic disease, but we have not yet studied it for a long enough period of time to know the long-term prognosis," Browne said. "We don't yet know what factors may distinguish those with mild versus those with severe disease
Click to expand...
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/23/health/adult-onset-immunodeficiency-syndrome/index.html
 
V

Volimar

Member
Scary as hell. Reminds me of a story I read once about how our DNA was programmed by the beings that seeded us to start unraveling once we reached a certain population...
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
They say South East Asia, but it sounds like it's coming from Vietnam.

Agent Orange is probably the culprit, might just have taken decades to chip away at their immunitary system to get to that point.
 
S

Snaku

Banned
AABHF.jpg
 
X

XenodudeX

Junior Member
We need to help our Asian brothers and sisters. What do you need Asian gaf? You name it and I'll make it happen.
 
C

CrookedRain

Member
Ether_Snake said:
They say South East Asia, but it sounds like it's coming from Vietnam.

Agent Orange is probably the culprit, might just have taken decades to chip away at their immunitary system to get to that point.
Click to expand...

A little more than 200 people -- almost exclusively from Thailand and Taiwan between the ages of 18 and 78 -- were studied. All were HIV-negative.
Click to expand...

Or not.
 
T

Talon

Member
My girlfriend (M1) was telling me about her medical genetics class last night, and the prof made a point to say every possible genetic mutation has happened and will continue to. One story was about four different genetic mutations that allow humans to digest lactates - 2 in Europe and 2 in Africa. Asians never developed it, so it's more a matter of tolerance and exposure.

Anyways, he ended the lecture by saying that, like anything, Murphy's Law applies, so it's likely that we'll continue to see mutations that have no particular benefit for people - a la developmental errors.

GENES, WHY YOU FUCK ME OVER?
 
M

Mariolee

Member
Oh hey look, just putting my old Asian self on GAF. Doodly doo, oh a new thread. Looks like I better check it out.

New immune-system disease found in Asians; causes AIDS-like symptoms
Click to expand...

Oh fuck. I'm Asian. Welp, usually these reports mean Chinese or Japanese. Rarely do they have articles on Indonesians. What are the odds--

Computer said:
"It's rare -- more prevalent over in Southeast Asia,"
Click to expand...

OH FUCK. Ok, maybe they mean it's JUST in Southeast Asia and only for people who grew up there. Nothing for an upstanding AMERICAN citizen like myse--

Computer said:
"But we have been diagnosing it here in the U.S. in individuals of Asian descent."
Click to expand...

OH FUCK. I am already dead.
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
Mariolee said:
Oh hey look, just putting my old Asian self on GAF. Doodly doo, oh a new thread. Looks like I better check it out.



Oh fuck. I'm Asian. Welp, usually these reports mean Chinese or Japanese. Rarely do they have articles on Indonesians. What are the odds--



OH FUCK. Ok, maybe they mean it's JUST in Southeast Asia and only for people who grew up there. Nothing for an upstanding AMERICAN citizen like myse--



OH FUCK. I am already dead.
Click to expand...

so i might have it lulz.
 
C

Casimir

Unconfirmed Member
Mariolee said:
Oh hey look, just putting my old Asian self on GAF. Doodly doo, oh a new thread. Looks like I better check it out.



Oh fuck. I'm Asian. Welp, usually these reports mean Chinese or Japanese. Rarely do they have articles on Indonesians. What are the odds--



OH FUCK. Ok, maybe they mean it's JUST in Southeast Asia and only for people who grew up there. Nothing for an upstanding AMERICAN citizen like myse--



OH FUCK. I am already dead.
Click to expand...


Hey, the article specifically mentions taiwan. At least you're still in the general 'southeast Asia'.
 
S

Sirpopopop

Member
I have some personal experience with this disease (don't ask for details).

It is fucking scary, and it's not just limited to Asians from Taiwan & Thailand.

There are definitely people who have had this disease who have yet to be figured into this study. The experiences I am familiar with were from the early part of the last decade.
 
L

Lindbergh

Member
With cases dating back to 2004, I wonder how many undocumented cases there could've been prior to that. Also curious if the Tennessee woman is the first (or one of the first) reported case of this syndrome in the US.
 
R

Raist

Banned
Chun-Li On A Bike said:
Isn't there other issues with antibodies though? I have heard stories with people who get sick easily because of antibodies, what is the difference???
Click to expand...

There's a lot of diseases in which autoantibodies are at least part of the problem. Most autoimmune diseases, really.
 
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