5 ms·

"Seabiscuit" author Laura Hillenbrand wrote a disturbing (to me) essay entitled "A Sudden Illness" recounting the exact moment of the onset of her struggle with

by Wistar 3y ago

"Seabiscuit" author Laura Hillenbrand wrote a disturbing (to me) essay entitled "A Sudden Illness" recounting the exact moment of the onset of her struggle with CFS. The apparent precursor infection was strep. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/07/07/a-sudden-illness https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/07/07/a-sudden-illne... Also, Dianna Cowern, "Physics Girl" has been dealing with long COVID and CFS/ME for about a year now. Horrible. https://twitter.com/thephysicsgirl?lang=en https://twitter.com/thephysicsgirl?lang=en

atombender 3y ago
Strep, in particular Streptococcus pyogenes, is really fascinating, and is potentially implicated in a lot of things. It's capable of what's called molecular mimicry, where a virulence factor called M protein cross-reacts with host antigens, causing autoantibodies to attack your own tissue, i.e. autoimmunity [1]. S. pyogenes has been implicated in other autoimmune disorders like psoriasis [2], which we know can be triggered by strep bacteria. In psoriasis, we have some evidence that it may set off a kind of bogus vicious cycle where a type of T-cell called a tissue-resident memory T-cell is "programmed" by an initial bacterial infection, but gets into a confused state where inflammation keeps going even long after the bacteria are physically gone. With other disorders, PANDAS [3], the cross-reactivity causes strep affect the brain and cause neuropsychiatric symptoms. In some cases, strep bacteria are thought to linger in the body even long after a symptomatic infection, hiding in biofilm or in reservoirs like the tonsils, occasionally re-emerging to cause an immune response, similar to the Epstein-Barr virus. I would not be surprised if strep turns out to be the ultimate cause of some illnesses like ME. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6684244/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6684244/ [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19781993/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19781993/ [3] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas
- Wistar 3y ago
  Interesting! Earlier this year my spouse fell mildly ill and was diagnosed with strep (throat). She was given a high-strength anti-biotic that had two or, maybe three initial large doses followed by about 20 smaller doses. She felt better for a couple weeks but soon fell ill again. She was diagnosed a second time with strep. She was prescribed a wider spectrum antibiotic with a longer course of 28 days which seemed to do the trick.

by Wistar 3y ago

atombender 3y ago

Strep, in particular Streptococcus pyogenes, is really fascinating, and is potentially implicated in a lot of things. It's capable of what's called molecular mimicry, where a virulence factor called M protein cross-reacts with host antigens, causing autoantibodies to attack your own tissue, i.e. autoimmunity [1]. S. pyogenes has been implicated in other autoimmune disorders like psoriasis [2], which we know can be triggered by strep bacteria. In psoriasis, we have some evidence that it may set off a kind of bogus vicious cycle where a type of T-cell called a tissue-resident memory T-cell is "programmed" by an initial bacterial infection, but gets into a confused state where inflammation keeps going even long after the bacteria are physically gone. With other disorders, PANDAS [3], the cross-reactivity causes strep affect the brain and cause neuropsychiatric symptoms. In some cases, strep bacteria are thought to linger in the body even long after a symptomatic infection, hiding in biofilm or in reservoirs like the tonsils, occasionally re-emerging to cause an immune response, similar to the Epstein-Barr virus. I would not be surprised if strep turns out to be the ultimate cause of some illnesses like ME. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6684244/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6684244/ [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19781993/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19781993/ [3] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas

Wistar 3y ago
Interesting! Earlier this year my spouse fell mildly ill and was diagnosed with strep (throat). She was given a high-strength anti-biotic that had two or, maybe three initial large doses followed by about 20 smaller doses. She felt better for a couple weeks but soon fell ill again. She was diagnosed a second time with strep. She was prescribed a wider spectrum antibiotic with a longer course of 28 days which seemed to do the trick.