New Features Of The Immune System. Part 2 of 3

T cells are a tenor part of immune system defenses against infection. That finding was based on 39 people with type 1 narcolepsy, and 35 people without the disorder – including four sets of twins in which one yoke was affected and the other was not. It’s known that genetic susceptibility plays a role in narcolepsy. And the theory is that in people with that inherent risk, certain environmental triggers may cause an autoimmune compensation against the body’s own hypocretin.

Infections are the main culprit, and there is already evidence that the H1N1 “swine” flu is one trigger. In China there was an upswing in childhood narcolepsy cases after the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009. And in 2010, a assemble of narcolepsy cases in Europe was linked to a particular H1N1 vaccine that contained an “adjuvant” designed to induce a stronger immune system response. That vaccine, called Pandemrix, is no longer in use.

All of that led experts to take a plunge that in some genetically vulnerable people, the H1N1 virus could cause T cells to mistakenly attack hypocretin-producing brain cells. And in the prevailing study, Mellins’s team found that segments of the H1N1 virus were similar to portions of the hypocretin protein – the same portions that activated narcolepsy patients’ T cells. They assert that supports the idea that certain infections confuse T cells into attacking hypocretin-producing cells.

An expert on sleep welcomed the new study. “They’re providing more-compelling support that this is an autoimmune disease,” said Dr Nathaniel Watson, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle, and a member of the board of directors for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He and Mellins both said the results could have sound use, too. For one, researchers may be able to develop a blood test to help objectively diagnose narcolepsy.

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