Trevor Marshall to Speak at John Curtin School of Medical Research in Australia
Autoimmune diseases are challenging for both physician and patient, because it has been difficult to influence the course of disease, even with medical treatment. Next week, Trevor Marshall will be the invited guest speaker at Australian universities, addressing the scientific cause of, and a promising treatment for, chronic autoimmune diseases.
Thousand Oaks, Calif. (PRWEB) November 8, 2006 -- The Autoimmunity Research Foundation today announced that their founder, Trevor Marshall, Ph.D., will next week make scientific presentations at major Australian universities in support of the newly formed Australian Autoimmunity Foundation. He will be describing recent scientific discoveries detailing the cause and treatment for chronic 'autoimmune' diseases, including sarcoidosis, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Even though these diseases are due to a special type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, patients can be helped back to health by novel regimes of safe, existing, antibacterial drugs.
This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Autoimmunity Research Foundation's request for orphan drug designation of two antibiotics, minocycline and clindamycin, for use in treating sarcoidosis. The Foundation is currently pursuing applications with the FDA for therapies shown to be effective in treating Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) and CFS.
Some years ago, Dr. Marshall noticed that these puzzling chronic diseases are associated with a defect in innate human immunity, not driven by 'antibodies to self'. Dr. Marshall had been searching for a common disease mechanism for some of the most poorly understood inflammatory conditions. He found the key -- with the realization that the VDR Nuclear Receptor is at the heart of innate immunity, responsible for expression of antimicrobial peptides and those cytokines required for an effective innate immune response.
In chronic disease, the body produces a seco-steroid hormone to activate this Vitamin D Receptor (VDR). However, vitamin D supplements in foods, including milk, deactivate the VDR and reduce the body's ability to fight disease. Dr. Marshall confirmed, in innovative Phase II trials, that in order to induce recovery from chronic inflammatory disease, it is necessary to restore VDR functionality by removing vitamin D from sources outside the body, and by using a drug that acts as a partial VDR agonist. [1,2 This enables the immune system to effectively recognize and destroy the antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
The Australian Autoimmunity Research Foundation is being formed by senior Australian scientists to further explore Dr. Marshall's discoveries in that country. This current tour includes meetings with physicians and patients throughout Australia, in addition to lectures at the major institutions.
Dr. Marshall will be speaking at:
· John Curtin School of Medical Research, Wednesday, 15 Nov. 2006, 2:30 p.m., at the Finkel Lecture Theatre in the new JCSMR Building, Australian National University
· The University of Melbourne, Thursday, 16 Nov. 2006, noon, at Bio21 Institute, Building 102, 30 Flemington Road
Interested members of the public may attend. To arrange an interview with Dr. Marshall, either in Australia during this tour, or upon his return to the U.S., please contact Belinda Fenter, Director, Autoimmunity Research Foundation.
The Autoimmunity Research Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in the state of California.
1. Marshall TG: VDR Nuclear Receptor Competence is the Key to Recovery from Chronic Inflammatory and Autoimmune Disease. Abstract presentation, Days of Molecular Medicine, 2006.
Copy available from URL http://autoimmunityresearch.org/karolinska-handout.pdf
2. Marshall TG: Are statins analogs of vitamin D? Correspondence to Grimes, DS. The Lancet 2006; 368:1234 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69509-3
Copy available from URL http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606695093/fulltext
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