COVID Breafast. What’s has space travel, COVID19 and the Science self-publicity machine got in common to help MS?….Maybe Too Late! has NDG cured PML?

The Space programme gave us a man on the moon , but in the process of that a lot of innovation was developed…like the Space Pen that I carry that writes upside down and underwater. Others include

• Artificial limbs. …
• Insulin pump. …
• DustBusters. …
• Shock absorbers for buildings. …
• Solar cells……
• Cold-Weather Wearables. …
• Foil Blankets. …
• Scratch-Resistant Glasses. …
• Miniature, Inexpensive Digital Cameras. …
• Fireproof Clothing. …
• Vac-Packed Food. …
• Memory Foam…….

Will Covid give us a cure for EBV?, but more likely I think it could show us how to treat PML.

PML is the scurge of MS treatments, a disease that develops when your immune system fails to clear virus from the brain. Sometimes you don’t have enough cells to do this. Like, when you are on some treatments such as Dimethy fumarate and fingolimod, when you get lymphopenia

This could be exactly what could be a problem in COVID. It is certainly a consequence of SARS-CoV-1 virus infection that damages lymphid tissue but is a cause? The scientific UK self-publicy machine thinks so and has discovered that there is a deficit of T cells in severely affected COVID-19 affected individuals…I said wowza, amazing and new News for the BBC “Immune clue sparks COVID hope“…”I did not know that:-)”……really, I mean really……If Mr. Walsh and Co. thought that was news ….time to furlow yourself…even the Association of British Neurologists knew that one in March when they gave out their guidelines for MS drugs….5 minutes of reading the first COVID-19 papers told you that one. Or reading French papers and others to give you the idea of doing a trial with interleukin-7. Anyway covid trial ahoy NCT04379076, let’s get the Beeb-In. Maybe it was a Eureeka moment…let’s hope the idea doesn’t stink. So what is it. Make T cells grow they get rid of the virus and COVID-19 is cured….Simples.

Interleukin7 (IL-7) is a hematopoietic growth factor secreted by stromal cells in the bone marrow and thymus. It is also produced by keratinocytes, dendritic cells, liver cells, neurons, and epithelial cells, but is not produced by normal lymphocytes.

IL-7 stimulates the differentiation of multipotent (pluripotent) haematopoietic stem cells into lymphoid progenitor cells. It also stimulates proliferation of all cells in the lymphoid lineage (B cells, T cells and NK cells). It is important for proliferation during certain stages of B-cell maturation, T and NK cell survival, development and homeostasis.

It has been suggested that it may be a way make lymphocytes young again. Want to read more, Interleukin-7 and immunosenescence.

So moving on with the logic of how the space race gave us something useful. We have the idea of boosting T cells to cure a viral problem. Let’s move to MS. Here we have PML a disease associated with lymphopenia and the JC virus…..Maybe in their desire to cure COVID-19 the real benefit will be the cure of PML and so de-risk MS drugs further. The mum of the Director of the Instutute of Self-Publicity had MS….Quick get the Beeb in. The Self-Publicity Institute can cure PML…Nobel Prize here we Come.

There have already been trials of interleukin 7 to generate lymphocytes

Interleukin–7 restores lymphocytes in septic shock: the IRIS-7 randomized clinical trial. Francois B, Jeannet R, Daix T, Walton AH, Shotwell MS, Unsinger J, Monneret G, Rimmelé T, Blood T, Morre M, Gregoire A, Mayo GA, Blood J, Durum SK, Sherwood ER, Hotchkiss RS.JCI Insight. 2018 Mar 8;3(5):e98960. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.98960.

They showed “Interleukin 7 was well tolerated without evidence of inducing cytokine storm or worsening inflammation or organ dysfunction. CYT107 caused a 3- to 4-fold increase in absolute lymphocyte counts and in circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that persisted for weeks after drug administration. CYT107 also increased T cell proliferation and activation”.

So in 3-4 weeks T cell numbers increased, so that’s the basis of the trial in COVID-19. If you are critically ill- will it happen quick enough. It is perhaps approriate that the trial above was called the “IRIS” trial, because that leads me to MS and IRIS. There IRIS means immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. There natalizumab has put breaks on CD8 T cells from getting into a virally infected brain, you take the brakes off by stopping natalizumab, in go the T cells and destroy the virus and in doing so kill the brain cells infected with the JC virus. So will interleukin -7 increase cells and then destroy the lung cells infected with the SARS-Covid-2? If it does I bet you won’t hear that on the Beeb.

A theoractical chance, maybe not factored into the greater scheme of things, because people are at risk of death. Hope the approach doesn’t tip it that way.

The immune sensecence idea also gave us check-point inhibitors used to treat cancer…but in the process gave the Self-publising Institute Doctors more work to do as this caused autoimmunity in the cancer recipients. However, being alive with an extra condition is better than being dead.

In this case the check-point molecules like Programmed Death one (PD-1) and CTLA-4 determine if the cells become old-aged and retired from duty. They drive autoimmune cells into suicide. PD-1 inhibitors, a new class of drugs that block PD-1, activate the immune system to attack tumours. However it took the brakes off the autoimmune cells and MS and arthritis occur as a consquence of the cancer treatment.

So will the Institute of Self-publicy say it was a Kings and Guys Hospital trial if it all goes wrong or will they find the basis for a cure for PML?

However maybe on this story it’s too late as NDG may have got their first! However, that’s tomorrows story but remember the details of this post and it will help you to understand.

P.S. There has been a survival of someone taking a Checkpoint inhibitor with levels of about 0.3 cells x 10*9/L normal range above 1, but notably to me they did not have elevated D-dimer meaning that there was not the evidence of the hyper co-aggulation problem, which is a problem for many. Is this why they survived

Outcome of a patient with refractory Hodgkin lymphoma on pembrolizumab, infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 Brendan O’KellyPadraig McGettrickDaniel AngelovMichael FayTara McGintyAoife G. CotterGerard SheehanJohn S. LambertFirst published:07 May 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.16798