DendroMax is based on ‘The Irvine Perspective’: a new understanding of autoimmune conditions
Diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis are caused by the immune system attacking the patient’s own tissues. But why does the immune system sometimes behave so destructively? The answer is now becoming clear.
Researchers at the University of California at Irvine have discovered an underlying cause of some common types of autoimmune disease. According to their explanation (‘The Irvine Perspective’), such diseases are the result of defects in the structure of molecular tags on the surfaces of cells. These tags, called “glycans”, enable the immune system to distinguish the body’s healthy cells from tumor cells, and from the cells of invading microorganisms.
Unfortunately, many of us are born with genetic defects that cause some of our cells to start producing abnormal glycans at some time in our lives. When this happens, our immune systems mistake some of our own tissues for invaders or tumors, and target these tissues for destruction. In other words, we acquire an autoimmune disease.
Connections have recently been found between glycan defects and the following autoimmune diseases:
- Multiple sclerosis
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Diabetes — both Type 1 and 2
- Lupus Erythematosus
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Autoimmune hemolytic anemia
- Tn syndrome
- Autoimmune kidney disease
The researchers at UC Irvine have also shown that higher-than-normal levels of N-acetyl-glucosamine can correct one category of glycan defect. In a recent report they state that NAG “may provide an inexpensive and non-toxic oral therapeutic agent for MS [Multiple Sclerosis] that directly targets an underlying molecular mechanism causal of disease.”
