Immune system may target some brain synapses
A baby's brain has a lot of work to do, growing more neurons and connections. Later, a growing child's brain begins to pare down these connections until it develops into the streamlined brain of an adult.
Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered the sculptor behind that paring process: the immune system.
The value of this discovery goes beyond understanding how connections are weeded out in a normal, developing brain. The finding could also help explain some neurodegenerative disorders - such as glaucoma, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis - that result from the loss of too many neuronal connections, which are known as synapses.
The advance, which has implications for drugs that could halt or reverse such conditions, will be published in the Dec. 14 issue of the journal Cell.
It was widely known that synapse elimination occurs during normal development of a child's brain, but until now, no one knew how certain synapses were flagged for removal. "We have identified the long-mysterious mechanism by which excess synapses are sculpted away in the developing brain," said the study's senior author, Ben Barres, MD, PhD, professor of neurobiology.
Barres' team found that the brain-sculpting process was controlled by a component of the immune system known as the classical complement cascade.
The complement cascade is one part of the multipronged attack the immune system launches throughout the body when it detects a foreign invader. Consisting of more than 20 small proteins that normally circulate in the blood in their inactive forms, the complement system is triggered into action by an invading parasite. The first activated protein activates a second one, which in turn activates a third, continuing down the line in a domino effect, ultimately yielding a membrane-attack response that kills cells.
Barres' team produced the first proof that the complement system also plays a role in the brain by showing that complement proteins bind to unwanted synapses, targeting them for elimination. Future studies will determine how the synapses are marked for death.
When children reach the age of 10, synapse elimination normally shuts down. But the researchers found that this elimination process becomes reactivated very early in glaucoma, a neurodegenerative disease that is a major cause of blindness. They found that the earliest known sign in glaucoma was the complement cascade becoming active at synapses, followed by massive synapse loss. Only much later did the neurons die, which is the hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases.
"This is interesting, as these complement proteins are known to be drastically up-regulated in nearly every neurodegenerative disease process that has been examined," said Barres. Up-regulation is the process by which a cell increases the amount of a molecule, such as a protein, in response to a change in its environment. Alzheimer's disease, which involves massive synapse loss, has a hundredfold up-regulation of complement proteins, he said.
First author Beth Stevens, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Barres' lab, said these findings in glaucoma made the team wonder if the same synapse-elimination process is restarted in other neurodegenerative diseases. "It's an exciting thought, as this would be the earliest sign of disease so far," she said.
The Barres laboratory has long been interested in the development and function of glial cells, which constitute around 90 percent of the cells in the human brain. These cells - specifically oligodendrocytes and astrocytes - provide support and protection for neurons, but the main role of the glia is a mystery, said Barres. His lab has been systematically identifying proteins and chemical factors that glial cells produce to modulate the activity of neurons.
The current finding of the complement cascade's involvement in the synapse-paring process was a bit of serendipity, said Stevens. The team knew the process coincided with the appearance of astrocytes in the developing brain, so they decided to run a microarray - the lab tools that can screen thousands of genes at a time - to see which neuronal genes were most active when neurons are exposed to astrocytes.
Unexpectedly, they found that the first protein in the complement cascade, called C1q, was the most up-regulated of all proteins.
"The role of the complement system was known in the rest of the body, but this opened up the question of what was going on in the brain," said Stevens. "It was surprising that C1q was the most changed protein; we didn't even think it was expressed in the brain."
Stevens went on to painstakingly characterize the role of the complement cascade. She ultimately showed that astrocytes make complement proteins that "tag" brain synapses during development. Complement protein C1q, and another one called C3, were required for synapse elimination.
Based on their finding that synapse elimination was reactivated in glaucoma, Stevens and Barres have a number of collaborations under way looking at the complement cascade's role in other neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's, autism, Lou Gehrig's disease (known as ALS), multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's.
"As synapse loss and C1q up-regulation are prominent features of all these diseases, our findings imply that drugs that blockade the complement cascade may provide a new treatment for many different neurodegenerative diseases," Barres said.
From http://med-www.stanford.edu
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Immune System Over-reaction - Immunological diseases
We have a few testimonials of people who have experienced positive results with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and glaucoma by using transfer factors. Transfer factors are molecules that carry vital information... to make it easier to understand, the programing language understood by the immune system. Transfer factors will then re-inforce the information stored in molecules, balancing out adverse effects in which the very immune system attacks good cells because of an over-reaction of the immune system and yes it will attack the weakest links, event though these weakest links may be good healthy cells.
Please watch this videos transfer factor - Natures Secret
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Immune System in a modern world
How is todays world? Economy fluctuates and so does our salaries, gas prices only tend to go up, value on our homes down, bills never cease to come and our lack of liquidity makes our credit card balances go up, stable income is not sufficient to keep up with inflation rates... talk about stress!! What about a break here please!
That is how a lot of people are feeling right now. This is causing great deals of stress which is know the source of a great deal of malfunctioning within our bodies system. Disorders, nervous break downs are just the beginning. Because we are always in a rush, we never have time to actually sit down and eat... Eating in company of our family on weekends!?? Sorry, gotta look for a part time to pay the cell phone bill that went through the roof. All this affects our digestive system and our nutrition. Keeping high stress levels will cause a complete malfunction in our nervous systems, signs are you stop enjoying what you used to, because you are now always thinking about something else, you smile less, get irritated easily, loose focus, forget things, anxiety and nervous ticks specially around your eye area.
One of the systems that suffers the most is our Immune System. Increased nervous activity causes distress of all of our systems and causes malfunction in most areas, but specially our immune system. It has been proven that as your stress levels increase, all of your body systems fall into a depression, functioning only to a fraction of their regular performance. A depressed immune system is the beginning of getting sick. You have propensity of getting sick quicker faster because your immune system has its guards low, by the time it takes to make a reaction its already too late, you ALREADY GOT SICK!! This is all a vicious circle... you get sick, you go to the doctor to get better, he puts you on prescriptions, you spend money on doctor+prescription=you end up working overtime--->MORE STRESS!!=SICK!!
Little by little people have been waking up of one of the BEST PAID SCAMS that are actually 100% legal (how wicked is that?) which is MEDICINE & PHARMACEUTICALS. These companies have STATE-OF-THE-ART labs that can meticulously create chemically the most ingenious "quick & easy" solutions... the bad part is that all of this stuff only attacks the symptoms, never the actual causes... the worse part are THE SIDE EFFECTS!! (possible side effects: diarrhea, loss of sexual appetite, dizziness, unable to have kids, blind, heart attack???) these people are the best paid criminals!! Wanna get better quick? ANTIBIOTICS! its like a bomb, destroys everything within its reach, no matter what it is, good or bad regardless it takes a hit! This not only affects your entire body's systems, but also as you take more of the stuff your body starts defending itself from some of these substances, causing you to need more! Most of those medicines are also made to make you dependent in one way or another, once you take it, you need to increase doses or change to a similar alternative.
Is this how we are supposed to continue our lives? I have seen people of all ages with all kinds of little jars holding so much medicine that they no longer know what is for what. We gotta stop these snowball effect in our health! Take conscious what you really are doing to your self by taking the easy solution. Our body is a top-notch engineering miracle light years ahead of any technology nowadays. We have got several system that adapts as it goes on the move! Our digestive system is able extract from just about anything nourishment to our body in the form of vitamins, minerals and other vital nutrients converting them into energy, storing them separating solids from liquids good from waste. Our body is able to transform fat into energy! Our nervous system allow us to enjoy touch, textures, temperatures adjusting to heat by releasing sweat to cool us down during hot weather or while performing activities...but with the excess liquid and minerals! burning stored fat! It even has backups!! no stored fat? it starts actually digesting little bits of less vital parts to transform them into energy!! Our nervous system keeps us alert with our surroundings sometimes so acute as to be able to avoid accidents! When things go wrong... our body even has a system that is design to take care of everything that is wrong, fixing itself!! This is the labor of our IMMUNE SYSTEM!! Our immune system is so incredible that has the ability to learn from situations and experiences; it will learn to distinguish all kinds of infections, viruses and diseases! According to the level of the threat, our immune system will react differently with each different situation, adjusting to the appropriate level and acting accordingly. Our immune system can become so smart that just as a studied business man graduated with professional titles would do when it recognizes a situation, our immune system becomes pro-active to avoid viruses, infections and disease! It actually analyzes even the air your breathe to determine if it should allow air flow (polluted with allergens) or if it should stop them from entering in the first place. Allergens are the cause of allergies which are nothing but an OVER REACTION of our immune system. This happens when our system over-reacts on something as simple as pollen allergens, it is supposed to maintain them outside, but the reaction of a person that has allergies sensitive to pollen allergens, it would be sneezing and then mucus. This is a minor immune system disorder. How about Could you think of a machine that could do all this? It would cost all the money in the entire world! That is how much your body is worth.. not even, because you are inside it!!
Our immune system is our natural body-shop, our way of self-healing our own bodies naturally! Now there are incredible advancements that rather than destroy the heroic immune system, it will help it to develop by acquiring more information.
In 1949, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence, the distinguished immunologist of the University of New York determined that an immune reaction could be transfered from a donor to a receptor by an extract from white cells. He concluded that this extract had a factor capable of transferring immune information from a donor to a receptor and he called this substance "The Transfer Factor"
- TransferWellness.com
Transfer factors are messenger molecules of "immune knowledge" that are transferred to body cells, which can also be found in certain mammals and birds. They bring additional immune inteligence to increase the effectiveness of the immune system, enabling to react quickly more responsive and efficiently. By doing this, she is transferring the experience information learned by her immune system to you. This is the principle how humans, mammals birds and other species develop resistance and immunity to diseases. As a fact, you were transferred these factors by your mother's first maternal milk which has "colostrum", containing these transfer factor molecules.- TransferWellness.com
Let me help you understanding the power of these extraordinary molecules. Did you know that most of us carry cancerous tissues and/or cells? Do you know why not ALL of us develop cancer? BECAUSE OUR VERY OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM FIGHTS THESE CANCEROUS TISSUES AND/OR CELLS!! AND MOST OF THE TIME OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM WINS BY DESTROYING THEM!!! In the same way our immune system with its stored information in its TRANSFER FACTORS is equipped to deal with ANY other disease, lupus, arthritis, diabetes, psoriasis, etc.
Think of the immune system as your army defending your body. Antibiotics would be like a nuclear bomb destroying everything within its reach, including the good guys your army and the battle field your body. Transfer factors would be like putting your army of soldiers on an extensive training in which they learn classified information about a common enemy for your body -diseases and also some serious training on the most effective tactics and strategies to conquer intruders. It is only when our system is not in optimal conditions that it looses allowing diseases like cancer to spread throughout the rest of our body. This is why it is VITAL that we maintain a balance in our lives, in our habits, in our way of eating, to maintain our immune system pro-active to any arising situations. Keeping a strong immune system is the best way to stay healthy, being pro-active just like our immune system.
Transfer Factors are now leading the health industry specially nowadays with all of the stress and new arising diseases and viruses. Now the threat has become higher than ever!! With the development of auto-immune diseases!! Did you know that arthritis is an auto-immune process caused by a disorder in your immune system? Depending on the genes that run through your blood line, you can inherit genes that could potentially lead to develop arthritis. This is pretty much a disease in which your immune system recognizes its very own residence (your body) as its own enemy, and starts attacking by its weakest point, in a case of arthritis it would attack the joins!
Can you believe we have had this type of discovery for years representing a TREMENDOUS advancement in the HEALTH medicine!?? Transfer Factors are actually a Patented substance which is one of the most significant discoveries in the 1900 in the health care industry. This revolutionary discovery was not given the attention it deserves. Why pharmaceutical companies have not developed this? Because health is not their business... MEDICINE IS!!
I work for a site that is leading this movement from the get sick to get medicine to get worse cycle to the be proactive about your health, seek well being and stay healthy at all times! Its cheaper! makes more sense!! how much do you spend on your car maintenance? How important is your car to you? Now think... HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR BODY TO YOU!!?? Be smart, I am smart and I want to transfer this message to everyone I know so they realize the truth about the Medicine/pharmaceutical companies BUSINESS that they have messing with peoples health for their own benefit. Why do I say this? Because they REALIZE THIS and they CONTINUE DOING IT ON PURPOSE BECAUSE IT MAKES THEM BILLIONS! As simple as that!
I choose to be proactive about my health, I take Transfer Factors, and as a result, I feel like never before, stay healthy, maintain active and full of energy. Through the day, our immune systems maintain active and burning energy without us even knowing. Maintaining an optimal and balanced immune system, avoids excess of effort of your body producing energy, thus I HAVE MORE ENERGY AND I STAY HEALTHY AND HAPPY!! ; )
Hope this blog has been of benefit to you. If it has, please diffuse it among the people you care about, friends and family.
Andres Molina
-Chief Leading Editor
TransferWellness.com
You may copy this text without my consent as long as you keep it unmodified and with working links. Copying this text without following these guidelines would be subject to copyright liabilities.
About the evolution in the brain
BSJ wrote: "The value of this discovery goes beyond understanding how connections are weeded out in a normal, developing brain. The finding could also help explain some neurodegenerative disorders - such as glaucoma, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis - that result from the loss of too many neuronal connections, which are known as synapses."
Even though I am not a brain researcher I found this very interesting.
Neurodegenerative disorders - such as glaucoma, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis are unwanted, of course.
But according to an unknown model of the brain (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_adapation#the-evolution-in-the%20b...)
an algorithm such as Gaussian adaptation may - according to its theory - simultaneously maximize the mean fitness and disorder (entropy, average information) of signal patterns, thus climbing a mental landscape efficiently obeying the Hebbian rule of associative learning. This disorder and average information may be of crucial importance to the success of the process.
My guess is that the immune system will attack neurons which have become inactive because of the adaptation.
Gkm
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