 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / October 2006Interferon-alpha lowers red blood cells / erythrocytosis
http://tinyurl.com/yfk2yp Complaints of headache, dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus, and visual disturbances are common. Another characteristic symptom is pruritus (40-50% of PCV patients), especially after hot showers. Many patients also experience an uncomfortable "burning" sensation in the fingers and toes called erythromelalgia. b. Myelosuppressive Therapy - Interferon-alpha is also an effective myelosuppressive agent but is very expensive to use and associated with significant side effects (severe weakness, altered mental status, and depression). 1: Rev Neurol. 1999 Dec 16-31;29(12):1225-35. Related Articles, Links [Recent advances in the treatment the nervous system disorders with interferon-alpha] [Article in Spanish] Cabrera-Gomez JA, Lopez-Saura P. Servicio de Neurologia, Hospital Provincial Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia Lima, Cienfuegos, Cuba. cabr...@jagua.cfg.sld.cu INTRODUCTION: The interferons (IFN) have had considerable effect on the course of relapses and the natural course of the disability of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the effects of IFN in other neurological disorders are little known. OBJECTIVES: To review the literature on the experimental and clinical applications of the IFN in disorders of the nervous system excluding MS. DEVELOPMENT: We reviewed studies of the applications of the IFN in viral diseases (experimental and human rabies, herpes zoster, herpes virus, non-herpetic meningoencephalitic viruses, HTLV-I myelopathy, arbovirus in animals, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy); supposedly viral diseases (Reye's syndrome), continuous partial epilepsy (Kojewnikoff's syndrome); prion diseases (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease); degenerative-hereditary diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Sturge-Weber-Dimitri syndrome); immuno-allergic disorders (experimental myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy-CIDP-); Landry-Guillain-Barre-Strohl syndrome, polyneuropathy associated with IgM monoclonal gammapathy; tumour disorders (benign and malignant primary tumours of the brain, metastatic tumours, meningeal carcinomatosis, extra-intracranial haemangiomas, meningiomas), and other causes (cuban epidemic neuropathy, neuro-Beccet). CONCLUSIONS: Disorders of the nervous system in which IFN may be used in a clinical trial include: herpes zoster and herpes simplex infections, HTLV-I myelopathy; subacute sclerosing leukoencephalopathy, continuous partial epilepsy (Kojewnicoff's syndrome), intra-extracranial haemangiomas, CIDP, polyneuropathy associated with IgM gamma monoclonal disorder, malignant primary tumours, recurrent meningiomas, some cerebral metastases, Behcet's disease and schizophrenia. Publication Types: Review Review, Tutorial PMID: 10652752 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk >http://tinyurl.com/yfk2yp The Re line is inaccurate. IFN-alpha does not LOWER RBCs. (And a cytosis is an increase). IFN therapy with ribavirin may result in an anemia that is associated with a lowered RBC. This is due to the ribavirin, not the IFN. Certainly, IFN can be fraught with a lot of extremely unpleasant side effects among many recipients of the drug. George M. Carter >>GMCarter wrote: The Re line is inaccurate. IFN-alpha does not LOWER RBCs. (And a cytosis is an increase).<< ???? It is used .. SPECIFICALLY .. to LOWER red blood cells in polycythemia .. THAT .. is PRECISELY .. what the PROBLEM .. with .. polycythmia .. IS .. Too ... MANY ... red ... blood ... cells .. INCREASED red blood cell PRODUCTION. "Other myelosuppressive agents. In some patients, phlebotomy alone cannot control the overproduction of red cells and can accentuate the overproduction of platelets. In such cases, drugs may be used to suppress the marrow production of red cells and platelets. http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_mat_toc.adp?item_id=9955 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <<snip>> interferon-alpha inhibits erythropoiesis <<snip>> Exp Hematol. 1995 Nov;23(12):1310-8. Related Articles, Links Interferon-alpha-induced apoptosis in human erythroid progenitors. Tarumi T, Sawada K, Sato N, Kobayashi S, Takano H, Yasukouchi T, Takashashi T, Sekiguchi S, Koike T. Department of Internal Medicine II, Hokkaido University School of Department of Internal Medicine II, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Japan. Recombinant human interferon-alpha (rIFN-alpha) inhibits erythropoiesis, in vivo and in vitro. In an attempt to clarify mechanisms related to this inhibition, effects of rIFN-alpha on highly purified human peripheral blood burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E) (20-60% purity) were compared with effects on erythroid progenitors in various stages of development. Day-1 and -7 cultured cells were equivalent to primitive BFU-E and colony-forming units-erythroid (CFU-E), respectively. Day-1 BFU-E supported by recombinant human erythropoietin (rEpo) and interleukin-3 (rIL-3) was inhibited by rIFN-alpha in a dose-dependent manner, and a significant inhibition occurred at 2000 U/mL rIFN-alpha. Limiting dilution analysis demonstrated that rIFN-alpha directly inhibits BFU-E rIFN-alpha inhibited the proliferative capacity or the colony expression of erythroid progenitors, with no relation to the stage of development, but inhibition of differentiation was not apparent. This evidence suggested that apoptosis of erythroid progenitors was induced by IFN-alpha. When day-7 cells were incubated with IFN-alpha in the presence of rEpo, there was an increased breakdown of total cellular DNA into DNA fragments of less than 5 kb; hence, the inhibitory effect of IFN-alpha on erythroid progenitors may mediate apoptosis. PMID: 7589287 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk >>>GMCarter wrote: >The Re line is inaccurate. IFN-alpha does not LOWER RBCs. (And a [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >.. THAT .. is PRECISELY .. what the PROBLEM .. with .. polycythmia .. >IS .. You're correct--and my mistake! George M. Carter |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.