Rheumatoid arthritis and germs
Doctors hit the trail of the culprit of rheumatoid arthritis
Researchers from the University of Central Florida have established a link between a certain type of bacteria entering the human body from milk or meat, and the disease rheumatoid arthritis (Bacteria found in milk and beef linked to rheumatoid arthritis).
Rheumatoid arthritis refers to autoimmune diseases. Human lymphocytes begin to attack not the pathogens that have entered the body, but their own cells, which leads to inflammation. The interleukin-1 secreted by cells of the immune system activates osteoclasts – cells that should destroy bone tissue. They begin to destroy the part of the bone heads lying directly under the articular cartilage and feeding it. Gradually, a special type of tissue grows in the joint, destroying both the cartilage and the surface of the bone.
As a result, a person's joints swell and hurt, then they deform, making it difficult to move. The exact causes of rheumatoid arthritis are unknown, but it is assumed that an important factor triggering the disease may be infection. A similar phenomenon has been noted for other autoimmune diseases.
Scientists are considering different candidates for the role of the original cause of rheumatoid arthritis. Basically, these are different types of viruses. But in a new study, for the first time, the association of rheumatoid arthritis with a bacterium has been noted Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis. This bacterium is often found in cattle, for example, in the USA about half of cows are infected with it. A recent study has shown the connection of this bacterium with a serious disease of the digestive system – Crohn's disease.
Since Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis have common genetic predispositions and are often treated using the same types of immunosuppressants, Saleh Naser, a researcher from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida, and his colleagues suspected that the same bacterium could cause these diseases.
They studied 100 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and found that 78% of them have the same mutation in the PTPN2/22 gene as those suffering from Crohn's disease, while 40% of these people were infected with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis. Scientists believe that this mutation, combined with further infection with bacteria from food, significantly increases the risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.
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