I'm coming at this from a functional medicine perspective, which understands for starters that a medical "condition" can have a variety of underlying causes, and that different conditions will sometimes have the same underlying cause.
Thus, if you're looking for a root-cause solution to a set of symptoms, it's actually the underlying causes that you need to elucidate.
We believe root cause solutions are preferable where available.
This type of tool could go in that direction, assuming specific B and T cell derangements can be linked to specific underlying causes.
Otherwise, we're stuck throwing inhibitors of this or that pathway or cytokine at people, perhaps with more success than we have had to date, but I don't think that's assured.
Hope these methods can also be done for ME/cfs that is disabling millions, and similar to Long Covid, Chronic Lyme etc. If these researchers could collaborate with SolveME.org, OMF.NGO, Polybio.org, Bateman Horne Center and others that see many clients, this could help millions in US alone.
Since many of the authors of this report, including Utz, are at Stanford, and Open Medicine Foundation, OMF.NGO including Prof Ron Davis, and others are doing studies of ME/cfs, this should be very practical collaboration.
While a good bit of this sailed over my head, nonetheless, through this and others of your pieces, I have developed a much greater appreciation of the broad-ranging impact of the immune system, and the benefits that can accrue as we are able to understand it better. I also appreciated your note of optimism at the close of this piece, hard to come by in these times, and much appreciated.
I've been misdiagnosed for years and finally pyoderma gangrenosum has been diagnosed. However the underlying reason is elusive. It would be nice to know what to do to rev up or suppress my immune system. Looking forward to reading your book.
As a "sage" retired clinical research RN from the UCSD AntiViral Research Center(HIV & Hep C), with primarily NIH funded clinical trials, I so appreciate this presentation of information. Gives me much hope! An example, of AI at its best. Staying hopeful we will persist & overcome !
Dr Topol: Excerpt: “But diagnosing and following individuals with Long Covid is an exemplar for how this could be applied, testing the long list of candidate interventions that may suppress the autoimmune features of this complex condition.” Thus, you describe AI methodology that surpasses current and past basic molecular screening that attempts to define potential therapeutic candidates suitable for stage 1 clinical trials. The reality is that searching for the acorn to identify some unknown compound is of no use in an urgent/emergent pandemic scenario as clinicians faced in early 2020. It was these circumstances that prompted our science-based focus on a re-purposed therapy known to interdict, to mitigate and most of all, to save lives in the context of multisystems hyper-inflammation. I/we would hope that this enhanced immune screening could incorporate such drugs as hydroxyUREA (HU)into those screening methodologies. Our collaborators at the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry have incorporated our clinical concepts and 4+ years of successes to identify but a few of the unique immune mechanisms linking the virus and viral-host ultimate targets. These links of the a7nAChRs and the intervention of one such candidate, HU, have demonstrated the role of the critically important cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) in acute and Long COVID19. Thank you for sharing these concepts of autoimmunity for diseases like SLE, ME, DM, Lyme disease. We believe it will soon include PASC/LC if only other researchers would be willing to approach this approach after reviewing all of our published discoveries. Repurposing is still a viable concept for discovery even if the other high-profile highly politicized drugs proved to be without benefit for prevention, acute disease or PASC. MD
I'm coming at this from a functional medicine perspective, which understands for starters that a medical "condition" can have a variety of underlying causes, and that different conditions will sometimes have the same underlying cause.
Thus, if you're looking for a root-cause solution to a set of symptoms, it's actually the underlying causes that you need to elucidate.
We believe root cause solutions are preferable where available.
This type of tool could go in that direction, assuming specific B and T cell derangements can be linked to specific underlying causes.
Otherwise, we're stuck throwing inhibitors of this or that pathway or cytokine at people, perhaps with more success than we have had to date, but I don't think that's assured.
Hope these methods can also be done for ME/cfs that is disabling millions, and similar to Long Covid, Chronic Lyme etc. If these researchers could collaborate with SolveME.org, OMF.NGO, Polybio.org, Bateman Horne Center and others that see many clients, this could help millions in US alone.
Definitely a perfect application for ME/CFS
Since many of the authors of this report, including Utz, are at Stanford, and Open Medicine Foundation, OMF.NGO including Prof Ron Davis, and others are doing studies of ME/cfs, this should be very practical collaboration.
As usual Mr.Topal,
Extremely hopeful which is what those of us crippled with Lyme disease search for(40) years now. However, as usual Lyme wasn’t even mentioned.
The first written actuality of Lyme being mentioned at all was on a CDC list fairly recently. It suddenly disappeared.
Perhaps Long Covid is taking over the name as they are terribly similar.
And again, thank you for your care and intellect!
Sincerely,
Thank you. I'd like to see BCR and TCR applied to chronic Lyme disease
While a good bit of this sailed over my head, nonetheless, through this and others of your pieces, I have developed a much greater appreciation of the broad-ranging impact of the immune system, and the benefits that can accrue as we are able to understand it better. I also appreciated your note of optimism at the close of this piece, hard to come by in these times, and much appreciated.
I've been misdiagnosed for years and finally pyoderma gangrenosum has been diagnosed. However the underlying reason is elusive. It would be nice to know what to do to rev up or suppress my immune system. Looking forward to reading your book.
As a "sage" retired clinical research RN from the UCSD AntiViral Research Center(HIV & Hep C), with primarily NIH funded clinical trials, I so appreciate this presentation of information. Gives me much hope! An example, of AI at its best. Staying hopeful we will persist & overcome !
Thanks! Right, Never give up hope.
Dr Topol: Excerpt: “But diagnosing and following individuals with Long Covid is an exemplar for how this could be applied, testing the long list of candidate interventions that may suppress the autoimmune features of this complex condition.” Thus, you describe AI methodology that surpasses current and past basic molecular screening that attempts to define potential therapeutic candidates suitable for stage 1 clinical trials. The reality is that searching for the acorn to identify some unknown compound is of no use in an urgent/emergent pandemic scenario as clinicians faced in early 2020. It was these circumstances that prompted our science-based focus on a re-purposed therapy known to interdict, to mitigate and most of all, to save lives in the context of multisystems hyper-inflammation. I/we would hope that this enhanced immune screening could incorporate such drugs as hydroxyUREA (HU)into those screening methodologies. Our collaborators at the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry have incorporated our clinical concepts and 4+ years of successes to identify but a few of the unique immune mechanisms linking the virus and viral-host ultimate targets. These links of the a7nAChRs and the intervention of one such candidate, HU, have demonstrated the role of the critically important cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) in acute and Long COVID19. Thank you for sharing these concepts of autoimmunity for diseases like SLE, ME, DM, Lyme disease. We believe it will soon include PASC/LC if only other researchers would be willing to approach this approach after reviewing all of our published discoveries. Repurposing is still a viable concept for discovery even if the other high-profile highly politicized drugs proved to be without benefit for prevention, acute disease or PASC. MD