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New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, UK, has shown that many cases are caused by antibodies that increase the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.
New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London (United Kingdom), in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), has shown that many fibromyalgia are caused by antibodies that increase nerve activity that detect pain throughout the body.
The results, published in the scientific journal 'Journal of Clinical Investigation', demonstrate that fibromyalgia is a immune system disease, rather than the current view that it originates in the brain.
The researchers injected mice with antibodies from people who suffer from fibromyalgia and observed that the mice quickly developed a greater sensitivity to pressure and cold, in addition to showing lower grip strength from movement. In contrast, mice injected with antibodies from healthy people were unaffected, showing that patients' antibodies cause, or at least are an important factor in, the disease.
Additionally, mice injected with fibromyalgia antibodies recovered within a few weeks, when the antibodies had been cleared from their system. This finding suggests that Therapies that reduce antibody levels in patients can be effective treatments. These therapies are now available and are used to treat other disorders caused by autoantibodies.
"The implications of this study are profound. Establishing that fibromyalgia is an autoimmune disorder will transform our view of the disease and should pave the way to more effective treatments for the millions of people affected. "Our work has uncovered a whole new area of therapeutic options and should give real hope to fibromyalgia patients," said David Andersson, principal investigator of the study.
When I started this study in the UK, I expected that some cases of fibromyalgia would be autoimmune. But this research team has discovered pain-causing antibodies in each of the recruited patients. The results offer a amazing hope that the invisible and devastating symptoms of fibromyalgia are treatable," highlighted Dr. Andreas Goebel, principal clinical investigator of the study.
"Antibodies from people with fibromyalgia living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings. The next step will be to identify which factors the antibodies bind to that cause the symptoms. This will help us not only to develop new treatment strategies for chronic fatigue syndrome, but also to perform blood tests for diagnosis, which do not currently exist," adds Camilla Svensson, principal investigator of the study at the Karolinska Institutet.
Current estimates suggest that At least 1 in 40 people are affected by fibromyalgia worldwide (80% of which are women) and is usually characterized by widespread pain throughout the body, as well as fatigue (often called "fibro fog") and emotional distress. It usually develops between the ages of 25 and 55, although children can also suffer from it.
