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Dear Listfolks, WOW. A year ago I put a long post on PIEnet about a Viral Theory for PD. I thought , at the time, that "HDV", as I termed it, could explain our condition. I postulated that there could well be what I called a Human Dopamine-deficiency Virus, or HDV. I stilll believe that PD could be caused by a slow virus that acts SLOWLY, like HIV. Just as HIV causes AIDS to develop, leaving behind HIV antibodies that cause the HIV-postive diagnosis in blood tests, PD could be found by a screening test, PRE-SYMPTOMATICALLY. This HDV-test would screen for the HDV antibodies that one day will inevitably cause PD to make its horrible appearance. Also, there is not a single person I know who has PD , who also is HIV-positive. This may extend to include both PWP's , female or male, who engage in unsafe intimate behaviors with other men, iand PWP's who have had needle-sharing behaviors. The 4 "gay" male PWP's I know from correspondence on PIE-net are all HIV-negative. All of these men write me off-list. This lack of AIDS in PWP's I know may be more than coincidence. And most of the PWP's I know never , or very rarely, get colds. Some of us have talked about this in our support groups at times. So I wonder if there is an HDV virus that causes a common cold , or a flu, earlier in life, even possibly in childhood.You get over it, and then, with no thought of a connection to that long-forgotten illness, YEARS later, PD emerges. Perhaps as years of time pass, while the PD virus occupies the nervous system, it genetically changes brain and spinal cord chemistry. Later, even the AIDS virus cannot find receptor sites to latch on to, because the PD virus has taken them over. So the HDV virus would prevent the HIV virus from ever gaining a foothold in the human nervous system. JUst a few thoughts at tea-time from the far reaches of the mind of a curious professor who wants his PD, and everyone else's, to be prevented or cured. Ivan M. Suzman 50/39/36 Copyrighted January 12, 2000 ^^^^^^ WARM GREETINGS FROM ^^^^^^^^^^^^ :-) Ivan Suzman 50/39/36 [log in to unmask] :-) Portland, Maine land of lighthouses 28 deg. F :-) ******************************************************************** --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ROBERT A MARTONE <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 09:52:44 -0500 Subject: Virus Found In People With Lou Gehrig's Disease Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Virus Found In People With Lou Gehrig's Disease January 12, 2000 01:30 PM PST NEW YORK, Jan 12 (Medical Tribune) - A research team has discovered a virus in the spinal cords of victims of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal nervous system disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Researchers at University of California, Irvine College of Medicine (www.uci.edu) and at the Rockefeller University in Lyon, France, found that 15 of 17 victims of ALS showed evidence of a virus in the motor nerve cells of their spinal cords. The virus was found in only one of 29 people who died of other causes. The virus found is similar to Echovirus-7, an infectious agent known to cause meningitis and rare cases of encephalitis. The findings, which appear in the January issue of Neurology (www.neurology.org), provide the best evidence to date of a possible viral cause of the disease and could result in new treatments for the disorder. "Many researchers have suspected a viral link to ALS, but in this study we were able to identify a virus known for nerve damage in the exact areas of the nervous system that are affected by this disease," said researcher Martina Berger, who conducted the study in France before coming to UCI. "We think this knowledge will help us finally uncover what causes this disease and may someday lead us to developing a treatment." In the study, the authors commented on the elusiveness of ALS: "Although ALS has been described for the first time in 1869, its etiology is still unknown." While viral - as well as metabolic, toxic, genetic and autoimmune - causes have been suspected by scientists, the study's evidence reveals the strongest viral link to ALS thus far. This was due, in part, to researchers' use of a highly specialized technique called a reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, which detects the presence of viruses in the body using trace amounts of their genetic material. ALS became known as Lou Gehrig's disease after the legendary baseball player died from the disorder in 1941. The disease affects the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, gradually weakening muscles in the body and eventually leading to paralysis. The disease leads to paralysis of the arm, leg, speech and breathing muscles, according to Dr. Hiroshi Mitsumoto, professor of neurology and head of the ALS and muscle division at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept) in New York, and a member of the ALS Medical Advisory Committee, ALS Association (http://www.alsa.org). It leaves patients, Mitsumoto continued, "unable to communicate or express themselves, unable to breathe and eat." It's often described, he said, as "a live body in a glass coffin." While ALS does not severely affect the brain or, therefore, memory and language, nearly all victims of the disease eventually die from respiratory paralysis, usually about five years after diagnosis. According to the National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov), some 4,600 people in this country are diagnosed with ALS each year. Although current treatments relieve symptoms of the disease, no treatment has yet been found to reverse the course of ALS. While Mitsumoto welcomed the results, he cautioned that they do not yet translate into treatment. The viral cause theory is not new, he said, and while many studies in the past have revealed this link, many others have negated it. "Many more studies are necessary," Mitsumoto concluded. "We should always be open-minded." Berger will continue her research to determine whether the virus is, indeed, the cause of ALS, or whether it is a by-product of a cause of ALS. ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------- Neurology (2000;54:1-6) Bob Martone [log in to unmask] http://www.kingwoodcable.com/martone/