An interesting piece of research has just been reported on.  The research, undertaken by a team, led by Dr Suzanne Hodgkinson from the University of New South Wales in Australia has found that injecting interleukin-5 into rats with Guillain-Barre syndrome (an autoimmune disease) makes them recover much more quickly, and if given as a preventative measure, ensured they did not fall ill.  It seems that this treatment may also be effective in other autoimmune conditions (Birdshot is an autoimmune disease – perhaps it will work for us?).

The exciting thing about this kind of treatment is that it works by increasing the amount of ‘good’ cells.  Much of our current treatment relies on trying to suppress our ‘bad’ cells.

Even more interestingly, you may remember that we posted about a promising (although rather off-putting) treatment called helminthic therapy.  This therapy involves worms which change your immune response and helminthic therapy is currently being trialled on several different kinds of autoimmune diseases.  When you have an helminthic infestation, your immune system responds by increasing the production of eosinophils which make the cytokine interleukin-5.

Dr Suzanne Hodgkinson says ‘ In this new treatment, it’s a matter of injecting the interleukin-5 and the body does the rest.  It’s both safe and effective and we think inducing the immune response by injection may be more attractive to people than swallowing parasitic worms’.

We say, please hurry up and start trialling this on us Birdshotters!  Anything to avoid worms!!

Read the full article at

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/119/19/4441.abstract

A paper, written by doctors from the Department of Ophthalmology at University Vita-Salute in Milan, has reminded us of how important it is to make sure that we have the correct diagnosis.  Just because we appear to have typical Birdshot lesions, and are HLA A29 positive, does not automatically mean we have Birdshot.  It is really important to rule out all other possible causes for our symptoms before Birdshot is diagnoses.

The Doctors highlight a case of a 43 year old woman who presented with bilateral (that means in both eyes) vitritis (inflammation of the vitreous body – one of the symptoms of Birdshot) and lesions that looked like the typical birdshot lesions. She tested positive for HLA A29 and was diagnosed with Birdshot.

However, she did not seem to respond to immunosuppressants, and there were some neurological symptoms she was experiencing.  Her diagnosis was re-evaluated, and she was diagnosed with intraocular lymphoma – a very different condition to Birdshot.

The doctors felt it important to write up this case to highlight the importance of careful follow up of patients with chronic uveitis and re-evaluation of systemic symptoms and signs.

Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09273948.2012.689074

A Group of ophthalmologists (including Nick Jones, who has been very helpful to BUS in the past) and optometrists from the Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester have undertaken a vision related quality of life and employment survey on working age patients with chronic uveitis who are taking immunosuppressants (most of us with Birdshot take immunosuppressants).

Their findings are that, those whose vision had deteriorated to the extent that they were not able to drive, were the ones who were more likely to have a poorer quality of life.

Their conclusion is that chronic uveitis, even when well controlled, can have substantial effects on a person’s social and psychological health, and can lead to difficulties at work.

This is confirmation of what we have heard from many of you and, interestingly, the survey also suggested that work can be put at risk because, for example, patients have to take so much time off work visiting NHS establishments for tests, appointments, monitoring, etc.

Find the write up on this survey at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22568885?dopt=Citation

We have long argued that we need a more coherent approach to Birdshot and we need services built around us, rather than trying to fit in to an NHS that often requires us to spend several days a month in hospitals and other health establishments.

Please, please remember to complete our own Quality of Life survey, if you have not already done so.  This information will help us argue our case more strongly, and hopefully help us get more co-ordinated services.

Carl Herbort and Marina Papadia from the Centre for Ophthalmic Specialised Care in Lausanne, Switzerland analysed the cases of Birdshot seen at the centre between 1995 and 2010.  These cases included people who had no specific diagnosis on referral, because they did not have the typical ‘birdshot lesions’, although they were HLA A29 positive.  These patients did have vitritis and retinal vasculitis (this is as a result of the inflammation, and to us Birdshotters presents as the floaters and ‘mist’ and other symptoms we have).

When these people were given ICG (Indocyanine Green Angiography) they were shown to have ‘bilateral evenly distributed choroidal hypofluorescent dark dots representing choroidal granulomas’.

The conclusion of this retrospective analysis is that ICG is an essential tool to diagnose early Birdshot.

This is a really interesting piece of research for me – I first presented without the typical Birdshot spots/lesions – but I was lucky to come across an amazing ophthalmologist who diagnosed me in record time (and did give me an ICG!) and got me onto appropriate medication in record time.  I still have very few of those characteristic spots/lesions, 7 years into the disease!

The full article can be accessed at:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22496001

Rea

Those of you who attended the Birdshot Day on 3 March will remember our very inspiring speaker, Professor Glen Jeffery and his research into Vitamin D.

Coincidentally, John Hall, one of our Directors, was diving in Palau last week  and found a very extensive article on Vitamin D.  (for those of you who, like me, don’t know where Palau is – I looked it up – it is an island off the Philippines).

The full article can be found at

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/332009/title/The_power_of_D_

The article reviews all the research and all the arguments both for and against Vitamin D and looks at why it might be a useful remedy.

Please remember the warnings though – those of us who are on steroids and immunosuppressants are already putting some strain on our liver/kidneys, so please ALWAYS check with your consultant if you want to add supplements into your regime, as they can and do interact with your medication.

Researchers from the University Eye Clinic in Maastricht, The Netherlands have looked at the role of Lutein in eye health.

Lutein is one of the carotenoids – it is a yellow and orange pigment found in many fruits and vegetables such as carrots, mangoes, corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and dark leafy greens such as kale and bok choy.  Interestingly, lutein tends to make up a minor part of our diets here in the UK.

It has been suggested for some time that Lutein protects the eyes against macular degeneration and cataracts.

Lutein, together with another anti-oxidant, zeaxanthin, forms the macular pigment (and thus protects us from glare and bright lights).

The research showed that animals that did not have an intake of lutein displayed early signs of degeneration of the retina.

Of equal interest to us Birdshotters is the recent findings that lutein can affect immune responses and reduce inflammation.

We are not suggesting that every Birdshotter rushes out to buy lutein – remember that every supplement can affect our body negatively as well as positively, and can inter-act with our medication regimes – so it is always best to check with your consultant.  However, this piece of research looks very promising, and is a really good reminder that we need a balanced, healthy diet.

The full article can be found at:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22465791

Scientists from Charite – Universitatsmedizin Berlin and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Switzerland have looked at the micro organisms we all carry around and found that, whilst some microorganisms can activate immune cells (leading to certain auto-immune diseases), other microorganisms can help develop an anti-inflammatory response.

They found that one of our body’s own immune system hormones called interleukin 1b works like a ‘switch’ – if it is present, it trains immune cells to become destructive (a dis-regulated immune system) whereas, if it is absent the immune cell develops into an anti-inflammatory counterpart.  It is the microorganism balance we carry in our bodies that determines whether interleukin 1b is produced or not.

This is really interesting – to my mind, it begins to explain why pro biotics have become so popular, and why something like food poisoning (which changes the balance of your micro organisms) might be a ‘trigger’ for autoimmune diseases.

The full article can be found in ScienceDaily at:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405075223.htm