What if Fibromyalgia is an Autoimmune Disease?

Approximately 2% of the European population, mostly women Fibromyalgia, A poorly understood chronic disease Pains Stable muscles and joints, general fatigue, Sleep problems, And mental health is not good enough, leading to anxiety and depression. Feeling of constant pain, exacerbated by chills, Stress Or moisture, associated with malfunction of pain circuits May the Do. And the peripheral nervous system. Some patients are also with relaxation Immune system.

Of this immune replica of Fibromyalgia Interested Swedish and English researchers. They wondered if self-attacking autoantibodies could participateEmergence Of Features The keys to the disease. They publish the results of experiments done with rats Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Crossing fibromyalgia to rats

The hypothesis presented in this publication is as follows. Autoantibodies, especially IgGs, play a role in fibromyalgia, and healthy mice should develop disease symptoms if injected with them. Hence they received the injection Serum IgG is only available from people with fibromyalgia.

The Rats Developed Symptoms of fibromyalgia After this injection. They became more sensitive to frost or mechanical stimuli and lost their livelihood. In contrast, sera of healthy individuals, or patients without their IgG, did not infect rats.

The link between autoantibodies and pain

How do these autoantibodies work? According to the authors’ conclusions, they will not be activated Sensory neurons, But capture with satellite glial particles Ganglion Vertebrate rats. Tests In vitro These autoantibodies have been shown to attach to humans as well.

Therefore, autoantibodies isolated from patients with fibromyalgia sensitive to pain receptors in the peripheral nervous system. They hyper-respond to stimuli and send pain signals to the brain.

There is currently no treatment to cure the cause of fibromyalgia. Comes with support Sensitive exercises And Antidepressants, But it does not work for most patients. A better understanding of the implications of immunology in this disease opens up new avenues of treatment. Treatments aimed at reducing the amount of IgG in the serum, such as plasmapheresis, improve the lives of patients who often become homeless.