Antibiotics A Potential Mechanism For Autoimmunity

In simple terms, the immune cells respond to antibiotics' effects on their environment by initiating autoimmunity. Not a surprise really. So the effects of the treatment can be worse than the disease. Cure one disease, create another. .....

Antibiotics A Potential Mechanism For Autoimmunity

……"The results suggest that gentamicin can cause cells to display novel protein fragments to the immune system," says Goodenough. In other words, "what may be garbage biologically may be important immunologically," says Eisenlohr.

……presenting an antigen to the immune system does not guarantee that it will activate the kind of immune response that initiates autoimmunity. But because gentamicin is usually used to treat infections, "all of the right conditions are in place to potentially initiate autoimmunity," says Eisenlohr. The inflammation associated with bacterial diseases gives a signal to immune cells that the peptides they encounter are dangerous. So even as gentamicin fights the bacteria causing the infection, it also causes normal cells to produce abnormal proteins that are presented to the immune system and have a potential of initiating an autoimmune reaction.

"A number of autoimmune diseases are thought to be triggered by infections," says Eisenlohr. "The results of this study suggest that certain antibiotics used to treat those infections may also contribute to that trigger."

The next steps, says Eisenlohr, could be to look at population data to see whether use of gentamicin correlates with higher rates of autoimmune diseases, as well as testing whether the peptides generated during gentamicin treatment actually do cause autoimmunity in a mouse model of the disease.

So there is substantial evidence that antibiotics 'sensitize' the immune system into attacking itself... ushering in autoimmune diseases like psoriasis & lupus..

I've found a similiar effect in aquaculture - to the point its actually healthier to let the fish fight off the bacterial infection itself instead of using antibiotics, because the ones that have had antibiotics therapy are actually left weakened and even more prone to developing the infection later once the antibiotic is stopped anyways (whereas the ones whose bodies were allowed to struggle and fight to survive the infection usually bounce back robust and even somewhat more resistant the next time exposed to the bacteria again).. and studies have shown the same.