Autoantibodies exacerbate EHEC symptoms

Autoantibodies increase EHEC discomfort

08/06/2011

Physicians at the University Clinics Greifwald and Bonn come to the conclusion that autoantibodies are at least partially responsible for the particularly severe course of the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) after an EHEC infection. According to the experts, the autoantibodies play a significant role in the neurological disorders that occur relatively frequently in the course of an EHEC infection.

Cause of the severe course of EHEC infections discovered
According to the physicians of the Greifswald and Bonn University Clinics, there is clear evidence that the particularly severe course of EHEC infections in patients suffering from the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), in addition to the so-called Shiga toxin due to the formation of autoantibodies become. The Greifswald transfusion physician Andreas Greinacher faced „World Online“ the autoantibodies are mainly responsible for the serious neurological damage. As a human antibody that targets its own immune system instead of combating foreign substances, autoantibodies cause an increase in the blood clotting factor in the case of EHEC infections. According to the experts, this impairs the circulation in important brain regions and the adrenal glands, which has a significant share in the currently observed particularly severe course of the disease.

Blood wash therapy against autoantibodies
After the autoantibodies were identified as potential risk factors, four EHEC patients with HUS in Greifswald received a special blood-washing therapy in which the blood was purified from the autoantibodies. The subsequent evaluation of the blood values ​​agree with the physicians quite optimistic, explained Andreas Greinacher. Even if it remains unclear why in some EHEC patients, the immune system causes the release of autoantibodies, the discovered connection could significantly improve the future medical treatment of EHEC infections, the doctors hope. The effect of the discovered autoimmune bodies described by the experts we are following. The Autoimmunkörper prevent that in the vascular cells of the brain and adrenal glands responsible for the blood coagulation protein (so-called Von Willebrand factor) can be decomposed. The corresponding protein accumulates and clogs the capillaries, which ultimately leads to the serious clinical pictures in HUS, according to the remarks of Andreas Greinacher and his Bonn counterpart Bernd Pötzsch.

Autoantibodies cause severe neurological disorders
The discovered autoantibodies, according to the experts, also provide an explanation for the offset occurrence of symptoms in EHEC infection. Because „the autoantibodies develop at the earliest five days after the EHEC infection“, so „The patients have usually already overcome the diarrhea and only then the severe neurological symptoms occur“, explained Andreas Greinacher. Among the most serious of these EHEC-related neurological impairments include, according to the experts, disorders of motor skills, impaired consciousness and epilepsy. (Fp)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann