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Can mold cause MECFS by tricking the immune system to attack HERV's ?

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
I thought this idea was too good for it to get buried in another thread, so here's a new one I hope people could comment on.

@natasa778 found this evidence that a protein associated with the mold Aspergillus Niger is theoretically similar to the HERV-W envelope protein. In principle couldn't that cause an auto-immune reaction against the HERV? Perhaps there are other similarities we haven't yet identified between other molds and other HERVs.

In response to @Dufresne I mentioned why I think mold is involved in MECFS outbreaks:

The theory I like is that it's mold within those buildings. The evidence is: that would localise it to a building only (and these public buildings are more susceptible to damp), mycotoxins intefere with immune function, some PWC's have improved dramatically by simply avoiding mold, Brewer's work on mold and history of PWC's living or working in water damaged buildings.
I think the idea is, when you've got the bad combination of toxic mold and some kind of bug going around, it's a double whammy.

@Valentijn had this to say about the reliability of the Uniprot database:

Uniprot is a very reliable source regarding proteins.

Basically, as you mentioned above, protein composition and shape can be predicted based on the genetic data. In the exons of a gene, every three letter combination forms a specific amino acid when that gene creates a protein (enzyme). That means that even if you don't know exactly where the gene or exons start or stop, each longer sequence of DNA can basically spell out up to three different options. So that's one way to guess at what is being created.

Another way is to look at the mysterious genetic sequences and search for them in huge databases. Then they can match the mysterious sequence to known sequences. And if a sequence is very similar, then the protein created should also be very similar. It sounds like this is the method which was used based on the info at the link, and is probably the easier method as well.

So the next step would be to locate the protein created by that gene, and take a closer look. This shouldn't be particularly difficult. Proteins are a lot bigger and easier to play with than DNA, and since they have a good idea of what the protein looks like, and the general location of it, it should be relatively easy to target it.


They might even be able to use existing methods to target the the very-similar enzyme which they found in a database. There could be cross-reactivity between the two, if it's not very specific to the already-known protein, or something used to react to the already known protein might be easily modified to react to the new protein instead.

The potential complication is that the protein seems to be located in the brain, if my scanning of the .pdf linked above is relevant. This usually prevents biopsies from living subjects, and death might make some proteins more difficult to find in deceased subjects, since the enzymes could degrade prior to a sample being taken.

This study
might be relevant, showing HERV proteins cause neuroinflammation.
 

acer2000

Senior Member
Messages
818
I think this finding, if true is quite interesting. Is there more info or more research being done on this?
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
I think this finding, if true is quite interesting. Is there more info or more research being done on this?
I don't think there is any research being done on this. I guess it would be up to us to try to inform researchers of the possibility...