INFECTIONS-ILLNESS-MED
Calif., D.C., MD.
BY DAN VERGANO

Slow growing infections may cause or promote a host of chronic illnesses, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Gulf War Syndrome, according to one team of researchers.

"We've found a large subset of various chronic illnesses are associated with infections," said Prof. Garth L. Nicolson of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, Calif. Specifically, infections caused by primitive bacteria known as mycoplasms, he added. Symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, soreness, joint pain and others overlap across many chronic illnesses, he noted. And patients with these ailments have few treatment options because of limited understanding about the cause of their signs and symptoms.

In a study published in the Monday edition of the journal Medical Sentinel, the official, peer-reviewed journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Nicolson and his colleagues lay out the case for mycoplasms as one of the
culprits behind Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome and Rheumatoid Arthritis. In one study on 203 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients, around 70 percent had mycoplasma DNA in their bloodstream, indicarting the presence of mycoplasmas. In contrast, only nine percent of 70 healthy individuals he compared them to carried such signs.

Another trial compared 200 Gulf War Syndrome patients to 62 healthy military subjects. People with the illness were more than seven times more likely
to have mycoplasmal infections, said Nicolson.

Mycoplasmas lack many of the features of more aggressive infectious bacteria, such as cell walls, that enable antibiotics like penicillins to target invading germs. Because of their simple structure, mycoplasmas reproduce slowly, using the machinery of invaded cells to produce their energy and many of their synthetic moleucles. Nicolson theorized that individuals with immune systems compromised by a viruses, radiation or pollutants are at risk from mycoplasmal infections.

"The breakthrough is using new genetic tools to find and measure the bacteria. We couldn't do that before," said Nicolson, who has adapted the DNA analysis used by crime investigators to detect germ genes in each patient's bloodstream. Once mycoplasmas are identified, Nicolson provides antibiotic treatment suggestions to physicians who then treat their patients.

"We really need to know more about these organisms before we can say with certainty what illnesses they cause," said Joseph Tully, who recently retired as chief of the mycoplasma lab at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) division in Fredrick, MD. He added that physicians who treat chronic illnesses have estimated that more than a quarter of their patients benefit from long-term antibiotic treatment, which he said inhibits mycoplasmas long enough for the body's natural immune system to wipe out the invaders. "I think that treatment is fine as long as doctors tell their patient it's experimental," he added.

Two federal efforts based on Nicolsonšs results are now underway seek to determine whether antibiotics can cure chronic illness. One conducted at Walter Reed Army Medical Center looks at the blood of Gulf War veterans for signs of mycoplasms. The other, conducted at Veterans Affairs Medical Centers nationwide, involves giving some mycoplasma-positive Gulf War Syndrome patients antibiotics and others dummy pills under rigorous experimental conditions designed to ferret out the true effectiveness of the therapy.

Medical Sentinel (1999;4:172-176)


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Dan Vergano | 703/527-6065(o)
DC Correspondent | 703/527-6075(f)
Medical Tribune dvergano@mindspring.com
520 N. Garfield St. #2 
Arlington, VA 22201 
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[Note: the final version of this press release may vary slightly after editing. G.L.N.]
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