Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0015674 (chronic fatigue syndrome)
 2,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular bacterium that causes a worldwide zoonosis, Q fever, and can be misused as a biological warfare agent. Infection in animals (coxiellosis) is mostly persistent. Infection in humans is often asymptomatic, but it can manifest as an acute disease (usually a self-limited flu-like illness, pneumonia, or hepatitis) or as a chronic form (mainly endocarditis, but also hepatitis and chronic fatigue syndrome). C. burnetii infection in pregnant women may result in abortions, premature deliveries, and stillbirths. Infection in nature is maintained and transmitted by ticks as the principal vector and reservoir. Cattle, sheep, and goats are the most important source of human infections. Humans contract C. burnetii infection mostly by aerosol in contact with contaminated environs, wind playing an important factor in spreading the infection. The wide distribution of C. burnetii contributes to a high resistance of its extracellular small cell variant to environmental conditions. Its intracellular large cell variant, adapted to survive under harsh conditions of phagolysosomes, enables long-term survival and persistence of C. burnetii, namely in monocytes/macrophages. Host factors such as underlying disease and cell-mediated immunity play a decisive role in the clinical expression of C. burnetii infection. Complete genome analysis of C. burnetii will certainly contribute to better understanding of the pathogenesis of C. burnetii infection and will improve Q fever diagnosis and immunoprophylaxis.
 ...
PMID:Coxiella burnetii infection. 1648 1

Q fever is a zoonosis with many manifestations. The most common clinical presentation is an influenza-like illness with varying degrees of pneumonia and hepatitis. Although acute disease is usually self-limiting, people do occasionally die from this condition. Endocarditis is the most frequent chronic presentation. Although Q fever is widespread, practitioner awareness and clinical manifestations vary from region to region. Geographically limited studies suggest that chronic fatigue syndrome and cardiovascular disease are long-term sequelae. An effective whole-cell vaccine is licensed in Australia. Live and acellular vaccines have also been studied, but are not currently licensed.
 ...
PMID:Q fever. 1650 66

Since 1996 in our clinic, the regular practice of megadose vitamin C infusion with dehydroepiandrosterone-cortisol annex and the continuous intake of erythromycin and chloramphenicol have been found useful for the clinical control of the autoimmune disease interstitial pneumonia, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. The long-term use of these two systems for the treatment of the autoimmune disease has led to the emergence of four problems of theoretical or practical importance, as described below: i) Should maintenance of the above core treatments be continued for prophylactic purposes in the absence of acute signs of pneumonia? Evidence indicated that their use was essential to arrest the dynamic activity of an intrapulmonary bacterial colony in the immunodeficient host, and that the 5-year survival rate of interstitial pneumonia patients would have been worse without the prophylactic practice of the 2 treatments. ii) Evidence was presented to suggest that the activity of the intrapulmonary bacterial colony was becoming less responsive because of the emergence of a drug-resistent mutant bacterium. The introduction of new antibiotics (kanamycin) was found to improve the acute signs of pneumonia. iii) The bone marrow function of one male patient with interstitial pneumonia was found to decline during the observation period of 9 years. It was speculated that his bone marrow, like his lungs, was in the course of fibrosis. iv) One female patient was diagnosed with breast cancer in the course of interstitial pneumonia treatment--an example indicating that the persistence of an autoimmune disease in an elderly subject might be associated with the emergence of malignancy. Dehydroepiandrosterone was shown to promote the recovery of hepatic function in the course of cancer chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide. The beneficial effect of the adrenal androgen was dose-dependent. The significance of this finding is discussed in the light of the steroid carcinogenesis concept. The reasoning behind the view that interstitial pneumonia and chronic fatigue syndrome are one disease is also discussed.
 ...
PMID:Four problems with the clinical control of interstitial pneumonia, or chronic fatigue syndrome, using the megadose vitamin C infusion system with dehydroepiandrosterone-cortisol annex. 1663 32


<< Previous 1 2