|
Hormone Helps Stall Joint
Damage
(HealthScout)
-- A hormone that helps the bowels move may also help movement
in the joints, a new study says.
Mice injected
with the molecule, called vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP),
had their joint swelling greatly reduced and had far less damage
to their bones and buffering tissue than untreated mice, Spanish
researchers say. The mice all had an animal version of rheumatoid
arthritis; animals don't get the human version.
In humans,
rheumatoid arthritis is a debilitating joint condition that affects
as many as 40 million Americans. The findings are reported this
month in Nature Medicine.
As its name
suggests, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a gastric protein,
one that helps the intestines keep food moving and helps secrete
mucus. The hormone also eases immune reactions by quelling chemicals
that signal inflammation, and by muzzling an aggressive form of
cell known as Th1 lymphocytes.
In the latest
study, Mario Delgado and his colleagues at Complutense University
in Madrid tested VIP in the sick mice.
Rodents that
got the drug had their swelling greatly reduced and had less cartilage
and bone damage than untreated animals, the researchers say. Although
shots every other day of the neuropeptide worked best at controlling
the disease, even a single injection when the symptoms started
greatly reduced those symptoms. The compound delayed the start
of joint damage and protected them from inflammation and erosion
for at least two weeks after treatment stopped.
The results
show that "treatment with VIP has great benefit at the clinical
and pathological levels" because it reduced both arthritis' inflammation
and its immune component, the researchers write.
Dr. Gary S.
Firestein, an arthritis expert at the University of California
at San Diego and author of a commentary on the journal article,
says the findings are "encouraging and would hopefully stimulate
scientists to move this toward the clinic."
But VIP is
a powerful hormone that could have serious side effects, Firestein
says.
Any time the
immune system is suppressed, patients are vulnerable to infection,
he says. What's more, giving people VIP could also disturb their
gastric system, causing diarrhea and other symptoms. Indeed, some
people with tumors that secrete VIP suffer similar problems.
Since VIP
led to an increase in the immune protein interleukin-4 (IL-4),
which in turn suppresses Th1, it might be possible to avoid any
gastric trouble by simply using IL-4 as a treatment, Firestein
says. Indeed, researchers have been exploring therapies based
on this and related molecules, he adds.
What To
Do
Nothing yet.
This research is in its very earliest stages, and more times than
not, what works well in lab rats doesn't translate into any treatment
for a human being.
To
learn more about rheumatoid arthritis, check out
Rheumatoid Arthritis Information Network, or visit the
Arthritis Foundation.
Reference
Source 101
For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
|
