Covid induced histone acetylation and consequences

Baz493

Well-Known Member
Trying to understand a friends long covid, involving lung scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis, I was able to learn that a combination of histone mimicry https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...disrupts-host-cell-epigenetic-regulation.aspx and increased histone levels are involved in more severe cases of covid. Resulting scleroderma and RA, in my friends case, is likely to have involved histone acetylation https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11899086/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24513290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5125850/ I was able to learn that histone acetylation triggers x chromosome inactivation https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21364561/ which then triggers excessive DNA methylation, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18157513/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19589151/ This also appears to be the means by which covid is able to trigger the commencement of symptoms of multiple sclerosis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17970735/
 

Not dead yet!

Well-Known Member
Does your friend have a rheumatologist or a neurologist? Reason I ask is, they'll need an ANA and RF test to verify they have Rheumatoid Arthritis, otherwise it will simply fall into the gap of things that "mimic" that disease, and they wont' really get help.

Same with MS. You'll need a neurologist to verify that that's what's happening and give the diagnosis.

In lung scleroderma (scarring?) those heal over time, though it can be a very long time. My lung scars didn't heal for at least 5 years and even now I can get sensitive in the ribcage in the same spots.

Don't go to a doctor and start with "Long Covid" because they'll brush you off. Try to get the MS or RA diagnosis and work from there. That's just personal advice. I think people ignore ME/CFS and Long Covid and want patients to "just wait longer" and they'll magically "get better" soon. Which is BS.

Don't let anyone but a rheumatologist test your friend for "Fibromyalgia." That should be a diagnosis of exclusion after RA is also excluded. A pain doc or a GP can't exclude RA definitely. I've been down that road.

As for what to do, this is all personal advice I'm not a doctor. YMMV

I'm recommending a general set of antioxidants. As much as you want your friend to be out of pain and suffering now, try to get them diagnosed first, before using heavy doses of antioxidants. Or it can mess with lab tests.

A general multivitamin with minerals, everyone recovering from anything should take this. We feel tired and we don't eat right and then our nutrients get out of whack and we feel worse. Don't take that risk.

Reservatrol and 2000-6000 mg of Vitamin C per day are a powerful combination for reducing systemic inflammation. But do that after you get the diagnosis. Glutathione is also available in pill form.

You should be aware that NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine) was studied for Covid exactly for the reason of reducing cytokine storm effects. Here's just one clinical trial https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT04419025 and that study references this site: https://www.nacincovid.info/faq You could spend weeks digging up all the studies.

The FDA briefly pulled all NAC off the market during Covid probably because they wanted to make it a drug not a supplement. But that effort ended and it's back.

IMO, just take Glutathione, it's less likely to be banned and has the same effect. Don't believe any hype about things that are "better absorbed" than others. The only hype worth anything is independent lab testing and standardized formulations.

I hope your friend feels better and shakes off the Long Covid nightmare. 👍
 

Baz493

Well-Known Member
Hi Not dead yet,

Although she was initially diagnosed with long covid my friend was able to provide enough pressure to get the investigations to prove that she has the lung scleroderma and RA, so she managed to escape the trap of her condition being dismissed as psychological. It helped that she is a nurse and that she and her husband went through all of that when he developed myositis years ago, due to mould exposures. I put the information about multiple sclerosis separately because it isn't something she had but caught my attention as my entire birth family have the disease.

I don't know whether this information will be of any use to you, in trying to complete your recovery from lung scleroderma, but last night I was reading research which indicates that the x chromosome inactivation I mentioned can be reversed by repairing methylation pathways, ie MTHFR. This is the information I passed on to my friend regarding this; I found that this page details that TSIX and CTCF transcription factor are regarded as the combination which inactivates the x chromosome. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/9383 If you check online you will find that men carry one x chromosome because survival relies upon at least one active x chromosome, due to a range of effects it triggers in the body. Inactivation of the x chromosome can result in development of cancer through CpG induced DNA hypermethylation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20920744/ The question seems to involve the question of genetic factors which can prevent the transformation of scleroderma, or other DNA hypermethylation related conditions, into cancer. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/new...etween_scleroderma_cancer_in_certain_patients You can read about some of this on wikipedia’s article on CpG island hypermethylation. Working upon the theory that MTHFR mutations are some of those potential factors I was able to push this research forward. Homocysteine levels connect with increased DNA methylation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25456744/ More to the point, they connect via CpG island methylation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037671/
 

Baz493

Well-Known Member
This extra bit might be of further assistance to you. It's a copy of information from an email I sent to my friend about the relationship between homocysteine, mast cells, histamine, etc.

It turns out that the body increases numbers of mast cells in order to try to protect tissues from homocysteine induced damage. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15591099/ Methylation enzymes, for reducing homocysteine, are zinc dependent. Homocysteinylation, the addition of a thiol group, induces a wide range of damaging effects to tissues. https://www.researchgate.net/public...l_consequences_of_elevated_homcysteine_levels So the greater the level of homocysteine the more mast cells accumulate in tissues and release histamine to protect them from homocysteinylation damage. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ar...cted-defender-against-heart-and-kidney-damage Not only do you require the MTHFR supplements to try to fix this. The methylation enzymes are zinc dependent so a deficiency of zinc also inhibits healthy homocysteine methylation, increasing mast cell numbers and histamine release. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25467853/

We are always told by doctors that histamine is really bad to have in our systems and it had never occurred to me that it might actually play a protective role in the body. Histamine helps to protect the body from the effects of homocysteinylation resulting from excessive levels of the amino acid. In rheumatoid arthritis it homocysteinylates alpha 1 anti-trypsin. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32473759/ In MS it's plasma protein N. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27671515/ Scleroderma, however, appears to proceed around a more circuitous biochemical route involving the DNA methylation I previously described.
 

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