Summary
Cathepsin G, an enzyme that was previously the number one treatment for AIDS, is an attractive prospect for scientists trying to battle arthritis, as it regulates the problem of immune cells attracting other immune cells, resulting in excessive accumulation and inflammation, reports eMaxHealth.
Original source:
http://www.emaxhealth.com/97/2392.html
Details
The finding by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that an enzyme known as cathepsin G regulates the ability of immune cells known as neutrophils to secrete chemicals that attract other immune cells and start the local inflammatory process.
"Cathepsin G affects a very early step in this kind of immune response, so inhibiting it has attractive potential for developers of therapeutics," says senior author Christine T.N. Pham, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and a rheumatologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
One principal type of treatment for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, inhibits proteases, so scientists who try to block cathepsin G's role in inflammation will already have an extensive body of research results to refer to.
Pham's lab uses mouse models of arthritis to study the contributions of proteases and other factors to inflammation and arthritis.
One such model involves injecting mice with collagen from calf joints.
"The mice make antibodies to that protein because it's somewhat foreign, but the antibodies have enough cross-reactivity that they will bind to the mouse's own cartilage and collagen and initiate an inflammation," Pham explains.
"This leads to a condition similar to rheumatoid arthritis in the mice."
Three years ago, Pham's lab published results showing that mice deficient in cathepsin G and other closely related proteases failed to develop arthritis after the injections.
Observations made by Pham's lab and other groups had linked the earliest stages of
inflammation in the animal models to neutrophils, which are a kind of immune system firestarter.
They arrive first at sites of injury, infection or irritation and secrete chemicals that bring in secondary waves of other immune attack cells.
"The way these integrins rearrange and cluster on the cell surface can send a signal back into the cell that modifies the cell's behavior, allowing it to do things like secrete inflammatory factors," Pham explains.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He's also the founder of a well known HTML email software company whose 'Email Marketing Director' software currently runs the NaturalNews subscription database. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Email this article to a friend
Share
this article on: 
