Hi John and Shauna,
John, you mentioned Dr Brown's theory about mycobacteria.
Since I work in a Microbiology laboratory I couldn't let that go with a little correction. You should have said Mycoplasma instead of Mycobacterium. The names are very similar but the bacteria are not closely related.
Henry Scammell, the author of the book “Scleroderma - The Proven Therapy That Can Save your Life”, page 169, similarly confuses Mycoplasma and Mycobacterium and this may be the source of your confusion. The two belong to different classes of bacteria.
Mycoplasmas are small (0.2 to 0.3 um) pleomorphic bacteria (once thought not to be bacteria) bounded only by a cell membrane with no evidence of a cell wall and hence they are insensitive to Penicillin. Morphology is variable ranging from coccoid to filamentous to star shaped forms. Cells will not Gram stain but can be stained (poorly) with Giemsa stain. Mycoplasmas are best identified by their formation on solid media of typical, small, “fried-egg” colonies which are from 10-300um in diameter (0.01 to 0.3 mm) and visible only under magnification. Nowadays they can also be identified by PCR. They have a requirement for sterols like cholesterol and so are host dependent.
Dr Brown of the Road Back fame postulated that mycoplasmas are the causative agent of RA and used the tetracyline Minocycline to successfully treat thousands of RA patients and some Scleroderma patients who would otherwise have surely died.
The antibiotic Tetracycline and its derivatives are antibiotics that do NOT act against a bacterial cell wall, instead they are protein synthesis inhibitors that block translation. They have also been found to inhibit matrix metalloproteinases. This latter mechanism of action does not add to their antibiotic affects but has prompted investigation into their use for the treatment of certain inflammatory disorders.
Mycobacteria (genus Mycobacterium) are acid fast (stain by the Ziel Neillsen method), aerobic, non spore forming, non-motile bacilli. Their lipid content is high. They are slow growing with most disease associated mycobacteria requiring 2 to 6 weeks on complex media at very specific temperatures.
Mycobacterium species associated with human disease produce slowly developing destructive granulomas that may undergo necrosis with ulceration or cavitation . Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacteia tuberculosis and leprosy by Mycobacterium leprae.
I'm taking low dose Minocycline myself - 2 weeks in. The antibiotic seems non-toxic to me and my bowels are very stable at the moment so I feel that the antibiotic activity may contibute to controlling PsA - whether the bacteria causing the attack on 'self' is Klebsiella or some as yet unrecognized commensal organism.
Cheers David
