Autoimmunity to protective molecules (Re: What if......)

[Guest guest]

> I hadn't known about Shoenfeld.

I read a few reviews of his recently. While he's obviously not a

native speaker of english, I also didn't find the reviews to be

exceptionally logically probing. I don't think he's a polestar like

Plotz. Still, he picks all the most interesting topics and brings up a

lot of stuff that's new and interesting to me, and he probably has

antennae almost everywhere due to his insane level of activity.

> With regards to apoptosis defects playing a role in autoimmunity,

> there's some indication that autophagy can mediate programmed cell

> death (see e.g., PMID: 9332326, PMID: 15530778 and PMID: 15325581).

> Makes me think of the two independent autophagy genes that are

> associated with Crohn's. The recent editorial on those findings

> cited the role of autophagy in clearing intracellular pathogens, but

> now I wonder if the role that those alleles seem to play in Crohn's

> may have more to do with a reduced ability of clonally expanded T

> cells to experience the full measure of contraction.

Interesting. There's always a less obvious interpretation. I guess

what keeps me leaning toward the first interpretation is that it is

arguably strengthened by its alignment with the NOD-2 thing. But who

knows... nonfunctionality of NOD-2 could end up affecting apoptotic tone.

> On another matter, given your experience with D3 supplementation and

> my hangup with the implication that D3 supplementation can alter the

> local concentration of calcitriol, another resolution

[...]

> That may not explain what happened to

> you, but it's another angle on the matter--one that doesn't require

> calcidiol to be converted to calcitriol.

Thanks, that's interesting. I definitely believe it could have been

anything related D3 in any way. All I know is something happened.