Dormant Virus Wakes Up In Some Patients With Lou Gehrig's Disease

MTorrice writes: Our chromosomes hold a partial record of prehistoric viral infections: About 8% of our genomes come from DNA that viruses incorporated into the cells of our ancestors. Over many millennia, these viral genes have accumulated mutations rendering them mostly dormant. But one of these viruses can reawaken in some patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive muscle wasting disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. A new study demonstrates that this so-called endogenous retrovirus can damage neurons, possibly contributing to the neurodegeneration seen in the disease. The findings raise the possibility that antiretroviral drugs, similar to those used to treat HIV, could slow the progression of ALS in some patients.

Comments

Timing

[onkelonkel]

A friend was just diagnosed with ALS. He has a 3-5 year life expectancy at best. If this could give him a few more good years it would be awesome.

Re:Timing

[Snotnose]

A childhood friend died of ALS last March. He was 55. He prolly could have lasted another year if he'd agreed to be intubated, he drew the line there.

Re:Timing

[Anonymous Coward]

My aunt died of ALS, and lived on a tube for three years, after being tubed while unconscious from a fall event. Eventually she just up and decided her existence was too much to bear, and refused to take nutrients or water. It took a remarkable fourteen days for her to body to give up.

Life lesson: if you simply refuse to want to exist this way, write and notarize a living will, and tell all of your family about your wishes.

Re:Timing

[Ol Olsoc]

A friend was just diagnosed with ALS. He has a 3-5 year life expectancy at best. If this could give him a few more good years it would be awesome.

This is a little like Alzheimer's disease. My mother in law was on medications to slow the progression. I think she lived a couple years longer than she would have otherwise. I'd never call them good years though, the experience led me to tell my wife that there would be none of that crap put in my system.

Pharmaceutical company did very nicely though.

But here's hoping something can be found.

Re:Timing

[93 Escort Wagon]

My dad died of ALS. He was on a ventilator and fed through an NG tube for quite a few years. Having watched how his disease and life progressed, I know I would not choose that for myself... unless there was legitimate, promising research expected to generate a cure in the very near future.

Re:Timing

[sconeu]

My wife died from ALS. It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

Some skepticism

[MTorrice]

Here is a story from Science that reports some skepticism in the conclusions: http://news.sciencemag.org/hea....

Re:Some skepticism

[MightyMartian]

My scepticism derives from the notion that just because some disease may be caused by the expression of ERV genes, that anti-virals would have any effect. A bit gene sequence is not an actual virus.

Re:Some skepticism

[Cyberax]

Unfortunately, you don't need a complete virus to cause havoc. A simple working reverse transcriptase or integrase is more than enough, even without actual viral DNA/RNA present.

Re:Some skepticism

[budgenator]

It does seem like the antivirals are having an effect in a small group of patients, the question is whether the effect holds up in studies designed to study the effect and are statistically rigorous, and if it isn't significant is that because the population had undiscovered factors complicating the study.

Re:Some skepticism

[MightyMartian]

If these are actually human genes (whatever their origin) being expressed, I can't see how antivirals would have any significant effect. Antivirals, so far as I understand it, act on the viral replication machinery. In other words, they interfere with viruses ability to harness cellular replication machinery. Once the genes are in the genome, there is no longer actually a virus to interfere with.

possibility...could slow the progression

[turkeydance]

all that.

Re:Yes

[rmdingler]

Your link amazing coward.

Cause, or effect?

[timrod]

What I'm wondering is whether this is something like the plaques that build up with Alzheimer's disease - modern medicine still doesn't know whether the plaques are a cause of Alzheimer's or a by-product of something that is the real cause of the disease. It seems plausible to me that this retrovirus could be to ALS what Kaposi's Sarcoma is to HIV/AIDS - a unique symptom of the underlying disease that certainly makes things worse, but isn't really part of the underlying cause.

Re: Irony

[ShanghaiBill]

You obviously have never seen this disease kill anyone you know and I hope you never will.

I have an uncle with ALS. Although he has lost much, he has never lost his sense of humor, and he frequently makes jokes about his condition. Lighten up. ALS is not caused by lame jokes.

To get back on topic: Instead of just treating this with anti-retroviral pills, we should look into editing out the viral DNA from the human germ line using CRISPR/Cas. Then instead of just treating the symptoms of ALS, we may be able to permanently eliminate it from future generations.

Re: Irony

[bizitch]

Sorry but you misunderstand me - my bad

Humor is probably the only weapon we have at this point and I understand that.

I've seen two people I love die this way and its probably the worst possible way to go. The brain is the last thing to go and its aware as the body dies around it. It's horrifying to see. With cancer at least the victim can put up a fight until the end - with this there is no fight.

God bless you and your Uncle.

Re: Irony

[Cyberax]

8% of DNA is HUGE. And endogenous viral DNA is hardly the only offender - simple retrotransposons are just as nasty. We _just_ might be able to edit out several fragments of DNA that cause really bad hereditary diseases in each generation, without causing a lot of cancer-inducing mutations. But 8%? Not a chance.

Re:Irony

[Paradise Pete]

What are the odds that Lou Gehrig would have died of Lou Gherig's disease?

Yeah, you'd think he would have seen that coming.

Re: Irony

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

I see you have a case of Stage 4 Whiney Pussy Syndrome. I think a couple of massive doses of LightenTheFuckUpFrancis might be called for.

Apocalypse

[mu51c10rd]

So this is how the zombie apocalypse starts...a dormantancient virus that wakes up. Time to start storing ammo, guns, and food.

Genetically modified humans

[Anonymous Coward]

How did we let us into the population? Thanks, Monsanto.

Re: Irony

[azav]

One of my former CEOs was diagnosed with ALS and made it his second job to fix his ALS, or he'd be dead. 15 years later and he's not in a wheelchair and he's not dead.

I know, I know, I know, I know it sounds crazy but he said he used Cayce wet cells (yes, that Cayce) and that put a stop to his ALS. He's no longer taking bags of pills, he's leading another company and he doesn't have ALS.

I know it sounds nutjobbery, but I'm just passing this on since you don't hear about people halting their illness (especially when it comes to ALS) and if it's useful to others, I hope that it it's put to good use.

Re: Irony

[Coren22]

The majority of cancers are caused by the immune system failing to continue fighting the cancer. Everyone develops cancers, it is usually just dealt with by the immune system though. It is when your immune system can't see the cancer, or otherwise stops fighting it that you "get cancer".

Perhaps you should think about how you phrase things as well, as that phrasing is very common, and is actually correct.

Re: Irony

[Coren22]

Um, did you really just try to suggest shocking someone to cure ALS?

http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/...

This is homeopathy, which is not medicine, and not science. Perhaps you should turn in your geek card.

Re:Coren22 CRUSHED & dominated (by facts)

[Coren22]

Hosts files cure ALS? WHO KNEW!

Re: Irony

[morgauxo]

You would not want to edit out that whole 8%, only the problem causing stuff. Since we don't ALL have the same heritable diseases I would think you would take the 'better' genes from the people who don't have the disease and splice that in, not just leave gaping 'holes' in the genome.

As for the rest, leave it alone.

Some of it has shut off genes that our species doesn't even use. For example, I remember reading that we have a gene that is common to most mammals that produces a protein that the immune system uses to recognize what is not foreign. The human version has a blob of viral dna stuck in the middle that disables it so we do not produce that protein. The gene is also believed to have a second effect in limiting brain formation. That may be one of the many changes that made us human in the first place. Would you want to edit that out?!?!

I think I also remember reading about how a copy of a gene that allows our (and other animals') bodies to produce a certain vitamin was disrupted this way. (or was that a 'jumping gene'). We didn't lose that ability b/c we had other copies but... no longer functioning this gene became more susceptible to mutation. There was no reason for evolution to conserve a non-functioning gene. It ended up becoming a gene that produces a different vitamin giving us an advantage over species without it. The 'new' gene still has enough similarities to the old one and enough of the viral dna that scientists were able to recognize it, this plus comparison with other animals are how we know the story.

This stuff just blows creationism out of the water.