Would we be able to use the measles virus to reset the immune systems of people with autoimmune disorders like MS or rheumatoid arthritis?
This might be the dumbest thing I've asked out loud. But I'm really interested in how the measles virus causes immune system amnesia, and if that specific aspect of the measles virus might be able to treat autoimmune disorders.
obviously, this has the drawback that the patients would be infected with measles. but would their immune system stop attacking their own body?
Autoimmune disorders cause the immune system to not recognize anything. They can't tell friend from foe, and default to attacking everything.
Measles causing immune system amnesia by attacking and killing where the immune system stores memories.
The immune system still attacks everything, it just doesn't remember what works on every virus.
So it will still attack friendly parts of your body, because it's "targeting system" still just tells it to blast everything that moves.
And because it doesn't remember how to fight actual threats, it generated a larger and less effective immune response, then all those immune cells attack random stuff, which leads to measles making any autoimmune issue even worse.
So that person expanded their response with more details and you have an issue with that?
Not sure where you read that.
That's not quite right - autoimmune disorders don't attack "everything" indiscriminately, they target specific self-antigens (like myelin in MS or joint tissue in RA) while still functioning normally against most pathogens.
If that were the case lemtrada and the like would have 100% relapse rates and wouldn't be fda approved.
Why?
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/neurological/depts/multiple-sclerosis/ms-approaches/lemtrada-alemtuzumab
That's the mechanism of action, and I'm not sure what connection you're drawing.
Lemtrada is straight up blowing up the immune system and destroying individual cells
As someone with Lupus, you're misunderstanding these things entirely. Have you considered becoming the head of the HHS is the US?
Also this is a question, so it's not dumb.