Cystic Fibrosis a Possible Protection Against Other Diseases?
A Good Side to the Chronic Illness
By Mari Johnson, published Oct 31, 2006
Published Content: 74 Total Views: 127,017 Favorited By: 4 CPs
Author's Note: I had always wondered why, though my husband has frequent infections, he never seems to get the typical array of flus and viruses that go around. In fact I've never even seen him get food poisoning. Now it seems that there may be something to it.
When the study came out regarding CF and cholera,some scientists suggested that CF may in fact have developed in response to this and other diarheal diseases as those diseases killed far more children then CF. finding no proof of that however, it may simply be that the two illnesses simply don't coexist in the same person. Could this be why food poisoning seems never to take hold in my husband, even when we've eaten the same contaminated food? (See: Gabriel SE, Brigman KN, Koller BH, Boucher RC, Stutts MJ. Cystic fibrosis heterozygote resistance to cholera toxin in the cystic fibrosis mouse model. Science. 1994 Oct 7;266(5182):107-9)
Now it appears that CF may also offer some protection against Typhoid Fever.
"...the defective CFTR that allows Pseudomonas to accumulate in the lungs of CF carriers may protect them from typhoid fever. When [immunologist Gerald] Pier exposed mice with defective CFTR to S. typhi, less than a tenth as many bacteria entered the intestinal cells - presumably because they couldn't bind to the altered CFTR. If the same phenomenon holds true in people, Pier believes, it would have given people with one defective CF gene an evolutionary advantage: They would have been more resistant to typhoid fever than normal people, without having cystic fibrosis." From ScienceNow at: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1998/506/2
Cystic Fibrosis and Tuberculosis
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Takeaways
- People with one defective CF gene may have had an evolutionary advantage - diesease resistance.
- Sickle Cell Anemia, prevelant among African Americans, protects against malaria.
- A single copy of the CF gene may also protect against TB.
Did You Know?
Cystic fibrosis develops in children who inherit two mutant copies-one from each parent-of the gene that encodes a protein known as cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). In these children, abnormal CFTR blocks the movement of chloride ions and water in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and other tissues, and causes them to secrete large amounts of sticky mucus. As mucus accumulates in their lungs, these children become increasingly susceptible to life-threatening respiratory infections.
Resources
- Cystic Fibrosis Gene Found to Protect Against TyphoidCystic Fibrosis on WikipediaCystic Fibrosis and Typhoid Fever LinkedCystic fibrosis gene protects against tuberculosis
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