Imunology tests

Status
Not open for further replies.

Akka

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
27
Reason
Other
Country
RO
State
Romania
City
Bucharest
Hi,
My question is fot the people that have been diagnosed with als.
Have you done any imunologic blood tests? Is there any modified value of something that can indicate an infection/virus/microb/bacteria/etc ? (like limfocites, coagulation speed, imunogram, etc).

I just guess that doctors do not recommand this since it has not been determined nothing about a virus. Nevertheless I will post some articles about that retrovirus they discovered.
Thanks.
 
Here are some of my readings about this issue

[

http://www.mdausa.org/research/alsvirusfaq.html


http://www.alsa.org/research/article.cfm?id=610&CFID=2&CFTOKEN=68144428


Comment in:
Neurology. 2005 Feb 8;64(3):410-1.
Detection of serum reverse transcriptase activity in patients with ALS and unaffected blood relatives.Steele AJ, Al-Chalabi A, Ferrante K, Cudkowicz ME, Brown RH Jr, Garson JA.
Centre of Virology, epartment of Infection, University College London, UK.

BACKGROUND: Retroviral involvement in the etiology of sporadic ALS has been suspected for several years since the recognition that both murine and human retroviruses can cause motor neuron disease-like syndromes. In a pilot study, an increased prevalence of a retroviral marker (reverse transcriptase [RT] activity) was demonstrated in the serum of British patients with ALS. The current investigation was designed to confirm and extend these findings in a geographically distinct patient cohort under blinded testing conditions. METHODS: A highly sensitive product-enhanced RT assay was employed to test coded sera obtained from 30 American patients with sporadic ALS and from 14 of their blood relatives, 16 of their spouses, and 28 nonrelated, nonspousal control subjects. RESULTS: Serum RT activity was detected in a higher proportion of ALS patients (47%) than in non-blood-related controls (18%; p = 0.008). The prevalence of RT activity in the serum of spousal controls (13%) was similar to that in other non-blood-related controls. Unexpectedly, the prevalence of serum RT activity in blood relatives of ALS patients (43%) approached that in the ALS patients themselves. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that patients with ALS have a significantly higher prevalence of serum reverse transcriptase (RT) activity than that seen in unrelated control subjects. The finding of a similarly increased prevalence in blood relatives of ALS patients raises the possibility that the observed RT activity might be due to an inherited endogenous retrovirus.

PMID: 15699374 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15699374


I wish so much I had googled "als virus" a year and a half ago, when I found that someone in my environment had als. I am doing that now, but it doesn't help me very much.
The only thing I don't understand is why since they have done all these studies any researches DO NOT DO NOTHING ABOUT THAT? They do researches, find a virus and than do nothing? As we see, the studies exists, but the fact that this might be a virus is not widely known.... If this is true, saying that it is a virus and creating a test for it, would save in itself many lifes.
And in fact, if it is a virus it will be much easier to find a cure, than if it were something more complicated than a virus.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Akka. I removed 2 of your links because the information was unsubstantiated and we get a little concerned when there is a small article surrounded by ads selling different miracle cures. I am sure you didn't notice them but I did and we don't allow them here. Sorry. Your point is better put across in the other articles any way.
AL.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top