Hi there,
A long shower it was.
I cannot help uttering a tiny piece of advice: don’t equate inflammation with infection! They are not the same. Many of you know this, but probably not all of you, so I venture saying this, because it’s such a common mistake. Infection denotes invasion by microorganisms, like bacteria or viruses. Inflammation is the body’s response to tissue damage caused by events such as trauma, heat, cold, sunburn, chemicals, autoimmune reactions, and infections. Infection thus constitutes one of many potential causes leading to tissue damage and ensuing inflammation. The causes and mechanisms leading to neurodegenerative disease, like PD, are generally unknown, but inflammation is high on the list of suspected mechanisms. If inflammation does play a role, it is furthermore unknown what precipitates the inflammatory reaction. Antibiotics would only help if it the cause is bacterial infection. To my knowledge there is no evidence of ongoing bacterial infections in our PD brains. If it had only been that simple!
What about rifampicin and MSA? Rifampicin, or related compounds, may turn out to have beneficial effects on some kinds of neurodegenerative diseases, but don’t yet think of this as the solution we are waiting for. Rifampicin is an antibiotic, and does seem to inhibit protein aggregates in the brains of transgenic mice overexpressing human alpha-synuclein (an experimental animal model for MSA). However, MSA is not PD. Mice are not humans. Transgenic mice are not normal mice. Most important, the mechanism behind the effect of rifampicin on the mouse model is possible related to antioxidant effects, and in all probability unrelated to its antibacterial effects. Furthermore, the group behind the transgenic mice study suggests a clinical trial study on human MSA patients. As far I can see, there are no results from such a study. Finally, rifampicin is far from an innocent drug, with liver toxicity as one of several side effects. There may indeed be something about trying to reduce inflammation, but not by fighting non-existing bacteria with antibiotics with all kinds of side-effects.
It is important to keep up hoping for cures, in our lifetimes, so I’m sorry if I have spoilt a certain kind of beautiful hopes with ugly facts.
Aleks
Heavy this, is this the standard on Neurotalk? I have to use what is left of my precious brain