Carbohydrate attack may be arthritis culprit - Thank you, Ohio Terry!

[Guest guest]

Carbohydrate attack may be arthritis culprit

Last Updated: 2002-08-21 15:52:13 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Anne Harding

BOSTON (Reuters Health) - A Harvard researcher has proposed a totally

new offender in the abnormal immune system attack that leads to

rheumatoid arthritis: naturally-occurring carbohydrates.

These carbs aren't starches or sugars, but more complex molecules known

as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which compose much of the body's

connective tissue and are also found in the fluid within the joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis occurs, according to Dr. Ying Wang's theory,

because immune system cells called antibodies target GAGs, binding to

them and then accumulating in the joints, leading to pain and

inflammation.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease in which the body's own immune

system attacks the tissue lining the joints. It is more common in women,

tends to strike between the ages of 36 and 50, and results in chronic

destruction and deformity of the joints.

The Harvard Medical School assistant professor reported her findings

here Wednesday at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting. The

research, she said, offers the prospect of a treatment for this

debilitating disease.

Wang has encountered some resistance to her findings, she noted.

Proteins and fragments of protein called peptides are conventionally

thought of as immune system triggers, but carbohydrates are rarely

considered to play a role in immune reactions.

The Harvard researcher decided to study GAGs' role in rheumatoid

arthritis because the carbohydrates are a major component of joint

tissue, and because people with the disease are known to have higher

levels of certain GAGs in their joints.

To investigate, Wang and her colleagues injected mice with GAGs. The

mice, they found, developed chronic rheumatoid arthritis-like symptoms,

including inflammation and swelling of the membranes lining the joints,

the tissue surrounding the tendons, and the skin. Some animals developed

erosion of the bone.

Antibodies were binding to GAGs, she and her colleagues found, and

accumulating in the animals' joints.

Wang and her colleagues have since found GAG antibodies in tissue from

rheumatoid arthritis patients. This is the first time, she notes, that

such antibodies have been seen in animals or humans.

These antibodies may be part of the body's response to bacterial

infection, Wang said. Many bacteria, including the bug responsible for

flesh-eating disease, carry GAG-like molecules on their surface, and the

body's own immune cells also secrete GAG when fighting infection.

This can prime immune cells to mistakenly target the GAGs that make up

the body's own tissues.

Wang is now testing molecules with the potential of blocking the binding

of GAG antibodies to GAG. Drugs based on such molecules, she said, could

offer a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. And the test she and her

colleagues developed to identify the GAG antibodies could also be used

as a screening tool, she added, to determine if a patient is at risk of

developing the disease.

[Guest guest]

Well - Looks like we finally have some hope for a way to get rid

of the pain

Ohio - Terry