The Black Death and the Modern Link to Autoimmune Diseases

Drain C.

Genetics, Stockton University

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63316538 

During the 1300s, the deadliest plague was raging across Europe, killing approximately 200 million people in its path. Medicine was merely a thought and there was really no true way of fighting off this deadly disease. But somehow people managed to survive. For those who have managed to survive the plague, studies have found a mutation on the endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 2 gene.  Not saying that everyone who had this mutation survived, but those who had the mutation were 40% more likely to survive. That's great! 

But, in modern day health and science studies have found that same exact gene mutation is causing an increase in autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease. The same mutation that basically eliminated the deadliest plague, is now the cause of other silent diseases. While causing an overabundance in the enzymes that destroy the unhealthy cells, the enzymes attack the healthy cells too. ERAP2 does not have an off function, so it will continue to produce enzymes that negatively affect the body. Treatments for specific auto immune diseases include an increase of ERAP2 inhibitors. 

 

Auto-immune diseases are often categorized as the infected immune cells targeting and attacking the healthy cells or organs. Initially auto immune diseases were thought to be inked to stress, but with recent studies there have been additional linkages to genetics and an outside surrounding environment. Your body is supposed to remove the infected cells, but to an auto-immune disease there is no differentiation of what a healthy cell and an unhealthy cell looks like. Unfortunately, everything is caught in the cross-fire and every cell is attacked. This article is saying that although genes are a factor to an auto-immune disease, that is not the final be all. There can be people in your family that do not have the linked gene but you could, or vise versa. Having an auto-immune disease may not be entirely inheritable. Scientists and researchers are still looking into the causes and effects of autoimmune diseases.  

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/autoimmune-disease-why-is-my-immune-system-attacking-itself