by Fibromyalgia may be a condition of the immune system not the brain – study
Fibromyalgia – a poorly understood condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body and extreme tiredness – may be caused by be an autoimmune response that increases the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, challenge the widely held view that the condition originates in the brain, and could pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected.
Bottom line-
The development of new therapies has also been hampered by a limited scientific understanding of what causes the condition in the first place, but this could change with the discovery that the immune system is involved.
Andersson and his colleagues harvested blood from 44 people with fibromyalgia and injected purified antibodies from each of them into different mice. The mice rapidly became more sensitive to pressure and cold, and displayed reduced grip strength in their paws. Animals injected with antibodies from healthy people were unaffected.
Prof Camilla Svensson from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who was also involved in the study, said: “Antibodies from people with fibromyalgia living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings.”
The mice recovered once the antibodies had been cleared from their systems, which took a few weeks. This suggests that therapies such as plasma-exchange, which are designed to reduce antibody levels and are available for other autoimmune disorders, such as myasthenia gravis, may be effective in fibromyalgia patients.
Source
Fibromyalgia – a poorly understood condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body and extreme tiredness – may be caused by be an autoimmune response that increases the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, challenge the widely held view that the condition originates in the brain, and could pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected.
Bottom line-
The development of new therapies has also been hampered by a limited scientific understanding of what causes the condition in the first place, but this could change with the discovery that the immune system is involved.
Andersson and his colleagues harvested blood from 44 people with fibromyalgia and injected purified antibodies from each of them into different mice. The mice rapidly became more sensitive to pressure and cold, and displayed reduced grip strength in their paws. Animals injected with antibodies from healthy people were unaffected.
Prof Camilla Svensson from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who was also involved in the study, said: “Antibodies from people with fibromyalgia living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings.”
The mice recovered once the antibodies had been cleared from their systems, which took a few weeks. This suggests that therapies such as plasma-exchange, which are designed to reduce antibody levels and are available for other autoimmune disorders, such as myasthenia gravis, may be effective in fibromyalgia patients.
Source
