Do you have a chronic sore throat infection that persists for months, or even years?
There is an infectious respiratory virus currently going around which usually causes the following symptoms (you may not have all of them):-
EARLY SYMPTOMS (first few weeks):-
✔ Chronic Sore Throat that never fully heals.
✔ Constant Stuffy / Congested Nose, with thick, heavy mucus.
ADDITIONAL SYMPTOMS (appear after a few months):-
✔ Depression and low mood.
✔ Generalized Anxiety, which can get VERY extreme.
✔ Powerful Psychological Changes and cognition disruptions.
✔ Loss of Desires and sense of pleasure; loss of libido.
✔ Social Withdrawal - escaping social activities more and more.
✔ Loss of Drive and motivation (athymhormia).
✔ Memory Problems, both short-term and long-term recall.
✔ Unusual Sleepiness and a tendency to fall asleep more.
✔ General Constant Fatigue and loss of energy.
✔ Stomach Ache and Pains, with stomach / bowel rumbling.
✔ Pins and Needles (persistent paresthesia), especially in legs.
✔ Dental Plaque Formation increases; new dental carries appear.
✔ Receding Gums and a sudden onset of periodontal disease.
LATER SYMPTOMS (appear at approximately 12 to 18 months):-
✔ Wrinkling of Skin with fine-textured wrinkles, all over the body.
✔ Weak Legs and hips symptoms.
✔ Loose Joints, as if the ligaments are becoming weak.
✔ In Some People: partial hearing loss; tinnitus; blurred vision; joint pains.
This virus causes immuno-compromised states, so secondary opportunistic infections will arise more frequently once someone has this virus. This is a chronic, persistent virus, and once caught, it does not seem to resolve (just like in chronic fatigue syndrome). This virus gradually transmits from person-to-person through normal household contact, so once one person has it at home, most other household members will catch this virus within a year. The virus has a very rapid incubation period - often taking less than 8 hours for the early symptoms to kick in.
The identity of this virus has not yet been determined, so for our purposes here, it is temporarily named the “chronic sore throat virus“.
A few people have left comments on this site (see below), saying that they have already heard by word of mouth that there is “a nasty virus out there“.
Here is my account of how I caught this chronic sore throat virus, and how it gradually began infecting my whole body.
This infection began with a bad sore throat that I caught several years ago. Being in excellent health at that time, I thought nothing of it. My soft palette at the back of my throat was red and inflamed (this is called herpangina), but there was no pain, and no rash or blisters, so I paid little attention to it. Several weeks later, though, I noticed that my sore throat had not cleared up, and instead, the infection started spreading.
This was weird, because I am very healthy, HIV negative, with no previous medical problems. Usually I fight off colds and infections very quickly. Yet this sore throat would not go away.
Within a month, this virus had spread to my nose, which started producing unusually thick and heavy mucus. The nose thus becomes blocked and stuffy, and must be regularly cleared of this thick mucus every hour or so. (This thick nasal mucus congestion is now a permanent symptom). A constant stuffy nose like this is classified as chronic rhinitis, or post nasal drip.
Next my lungs became infected, leading to a chest infection and a dry cough. Soon after this, the virus reached my stomach, which started aching a little and produced gas and bubbling sounds, which created some belching (my rumbling, aching stomach is also a permanent - but thankfully intermittent - symptom). The virus also spread to my intestines, where it also produced gas (flatulence), rumbles and bowel bloating.
After another month, some very unpleasant mental symptoms began. These psychological symptoms started with a feeling of being very tense, generally anxious and uncomfortable, especially with people (even with friends and family). I became very weak mentally. My strength of mind disintegrated, and in particular, I became very frail and feeble emotionally. Other people seemed to disturb my mind, so it became quite unpleasant to socialize.
As a result of these psychological changes, I started avoiding social contact more and more, just because I found it a mental strain to be with people, even if they were good friends. Avoiding company made me lonely, yet being with people caused severe tension. This extreme general anxiety made it impossible for me to continue to go to work, so I left my job.
Additionally, just reading or listening to facts and ideas created strong tensions in my mind, as I tried to process the information. So it seemed I could not cope with structured information very well either, even from a book, television or radio. This is more or less psychosis. As a coping strategy, I reduced my time with people and information to help reduce this unpleasant mental tension.
Then I quickly became very apathetic. The apathy was towards all sorts of tasks and activities. My normal pro-active ‘can do’ attitude was replaced by a ‘not interested’ feeling - totally out of character. I am normally a motivated, enthusiastic and highly-organized person. However, as this infection and its psychological effects progressed, I began to lose interest in the usual pleasures of life (a condition called anhedonia), including pleasure from sex. There was also a large loss of libido. Furthermore, much of my enthusiasm, drive and motivation just evaporated away (a condition called athymhormia). I also experienced some short-term memory difficulties, which caused problems in my day-to-day activities. There was some intelligence loss, particularly in my verbal, spelling and grammatical skills, and I found it a lot harder to recall words, names and information from my long-term memory. In fact, I found myself becoming less articulate, often mispronouncing words, and forgetting names.
Additionally, my physical body movements started getting a little more clumsy; I seemed to become physically less coordinated.
To sum up, psychologically, I became: anxious, depressed, avoiding social contact, unmotivated, emotionally delicate, confused, forgetful, clumsy, uncoordinated, with a dulled intellect, decreased verbal intelligence, and an impaired long-term memory.
In certain people (but not in my case) this virus caused uncharacteristic and irrational outbursts of aggression in addition to the above.
As an aside, these symptoms make me wonder whether a virulent virus such as this one may be responsible for the recent worldwide rise in autism and schizophrenia, since its psychological manifestations relate to these conditions.
The next symptoms I experienced were more and more fatigue and sleepiness (hypersomnia). I seemed to fall asleep all the time, even when I was not that tired. Perhaps this virus has affected the area of the brain that controls sleep (the hypothalamus). As this sleepiness and fatigue progressed, I wondered if my condition could be classed as chronic fatigue syndrome (also called myalgic encephalomyelitis).
Four months after first catching this virus, a pins and needles or skin crawling sensation began to appear, first in my legs, but quickly spreading to all my body. There were constant sharp prickling sensations everywhere, which felt like they were located just beneath my skin; these prickling sensations felt like lots of tiny bites, or tiny needle pricks. The severity of this prickling sensation varied from one day to the next. Sometimes the pins and needles would disappear for a week, but always return before long. These type of sensations are called paresthesias, and in my case, this was chronic paresthesia. In addition, a mild sense of numbness in the limbs also appeared.
The next set symptoms to arise were a significant loss of appetite, huge lost of taste and smell sensation, and a general lack of desire for food. In the case of the loss of smell: some weeks it would return, but almost disappear again, and continue in this way. The loss of smell was never complete, but my olfactory sense was reduced to a fraction of its normal capability.
My oral health was then affected: my gums, previously extremely healthy and pink, began receding quite noticeably. Lots of brown plaque was suddenly deposited on my previously white teeth.
No matter how much I brush it away, the plaque still comes back. Along with this increased plaque formation, and in spite of frequent tooth brushing, new dental carries suddenly appeared. Previous to this, my oral health was excellent. Therefore, it seems I developed periodontitis within a matter of months. This gum disease may be a manifestation of the immune suppression this virus creates in the body, allowing bacteria to thrive and colonize the oral region. In addition, gum tissue can be directly attacked by tissue-dissolving enzymes created by viruses such as Epstein-Barr (we will come back to this later). This sudden-onset of periodontal disease is quite worrying.
After this, I noticed my vision began to deteriorate. So I had my eyes tested; there was nothing wrong with my eyes or my ophthalmic prescription. My vision seemed “muddy”, rather than optically blurred. I noticed I could not distinguish subtle changes of shade or color so well. My vision became similar to what you see when you turn up the image contrast on a computer or television: bright yet lacking the shades of detail. One possible cause is an infection in the eye, such as uveitis (which is an inflammation just beneath the retina).
About 12 to 18 months after first catching this virus, more strange symptoms manifested: a fine, parchment-like wrinkling of the skin began appearing all over my body. This strange fine wrinkling is most prominent on the tops of the hands (see picture). The skin also shows a slight red blotchy quality. I am guessing that this wrinkling is the result of collagen or elastin damage under the skin, caused by my viral infection destroying these connective-tissues (further details given later). Although this skin wrinkling is a relatively mild symptom - and not everybody with this virus gets it - this rare phenomenon is mentioned in case it helps anyone to identify my virus. This wrinkling is not normal aging skin (more details later);
it is definitely caused by the virus. The closest fit to my skin’s appearance I could find is a disease called Mid-Dermal Elastolysis. This odd skin damage caused by this virus is usually only noticeable in people older than 30 or thereabouts.
Another symptom that manifested at this 12 to 18 month stage was weak legs (and loose hips), and joint looseness. I suspect that the virus is attacking the connective tissue in the major joint ligaments. The ligament looseness is most prominent in the hip-leg joint, and it results in an unsure walking gait. The hips and legs feel spongy and lacking in the normal firmness, as if the ligaments in my hips / legs have become slack, like a loose overstretched rubber band. This leg weakness symptom is constant, all day, and every day. There is no loss of strength or spasm in any of the body’s muscles; this suggests that my joint laxity arises from connective tissue weakness in the ligaments, rather than caused by nerve or neuromuscular damage. In fact, it seems likely that the wrinkly skin symptoms and the weak leg symptoms are caused by the same mechanism: collagen or elastin connective-tissue destruction caused by the infection. Whatever it is caused by, this is quite an undesirable symptom, that makes you feel frail in your physique. Medical names for this state include: loose ligaments, ligamentous laxity and joint hypermobility.
A slight joint pain sometimes appears (usually just in my knees); but there is no pain, spasm nor stiffness in the muscles themselves.
This virus generally seems to cause immune system weakening, and this results in secondary opportunistic infections often arising, for example: bad toothache, ear infections, eye styes, fungal skin infections, urinary-tract infections, etc (all requiring antibiotics or antimicrobials to clear). These infections never appeared before contracting this virus.
Furthermore, it seem that the virus itself, even years after first catching this virus, will occasional spontaneously cause a severe organ (or an organ endothelial lining) infection, requiring hospitalization.
Summary: this virus is a systemic, respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological virus, which persists chronically in the body, causes joint laxity, chronic fatigue, and seems to have the ability to enter the central nervous system and cause powerful and permanent mental state alterations such as anhedonia, generalized anxiety, and depression; it also seems to weaken the immune system, resulting in an increase of other opportunistic (eg: bacterial and fungal) infections. The virus has a fast incubation period of less than 24 hours (with 8 hours being a typical time from first exposure to onset of initial fever and vomiting symptoms); this rapid incubation is very consistent (has been observed in more than one person).
Other less common symptoms: a whole cluster of other symptoms also appeared during this infection, including partial hearing loss and gradual deafness (noticed in older people, a year or so after initial infection); increased tinnitus; sense of balance becoming noticeably less acute; hoarse voice due to persistent throat soreness, (or possibly due to connective tissue damage in the larynx); chronic white tongue coating (geographic tongue); infection of the urethra; eczema / psoriasis; weight gain on stomach; kidney pains; joint pains (arthralgias); muscle cramps, especially in the calf muscles; sudden episodes of racing heart (tachycardia); forgetting words, losing some of your vocabulary, suddenly having more difficulty in spelling words. Acute encephalitis (with large personality changes) hit one infected person, and many months after the initial infection; this encephalitis was relatively mild, but caused severe personality and cognitive disruptions.
Furthermore, this virus is not cleared from the body: it spreads throughout the body and central nervous system, remaining as a chronic, persistent and active infection. Although some of its symptoms improve, others symptoms seem to get worse. The mental state changes seem semi-permanent; the weak leg joints and skin wrinkling seem to get a little worse over time.
As with many respiratory infections, once one person catches this virus, it will spread to most other members of their household. However, this happens slowly: it takes a year or more before everyone in the household catches this virus. So clearly the contagiousness of this virus is relatively low. Nevertheless, in time, most of the household will have it, and will typically display either a chronically-congested nose with thick, viscous mucus, or a chronic sore throat (or both), plus many of the psychological symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, and loss of motivation. The symptoms of weak legs and fine skin wrinkles tend to appear some time later. Generally, once an individual catches this bug, they are not quite themselves anymore. However, there is a range of individual responses to this virus: some people become badly depressed and distressed; others are more lucky, and their mental symptoms appear milder. Approximately half the people who catch this virus get the chronic sore throat; half get a chronic production of thick nasal mucus. Only say 10 - 20% suffer the more severe mental symptoms and personality change that I experienced; but everyone gets noticeably affected to some degree by depression, anxiety (or aggression), loss of motivation, and loss of interest in life. This really is a misery virus.
None of the 10 or so medical professionals I have seen have yet identified this disease or the pathogen causing it. This infection is probably a virus (rather than a bacterial or fungal disease), because three separate bacterial cultures that my doctors conducted (one of which at a university hospital infectious disease center), showed negative results.
Should anyone recognize these symptoms and have some ideas about the identity of this pathogen, or have the same symptoms themselves and wish to share their experience and circumstances, please leave a comment below (click here). The purpose of this web site is to find people in similar situation, and to share information. Leaving your email is optional, and in any case, it will not be revealed.
Note: there are many causes of chronic sore throat, so your chronic sore throat may not necessarily be caused by this virus, unless you have very similar symptoms.
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| SPECULATIONS ON THE NATURE OF THIS VIRUS |
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DIAGNOSIS
The most probable diagnosis for my virally-induced set of symptoms is chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). This is because CFS frequently displays symptoms of debilitating fatigue, joint looseness and leg weakness, as well as all the myriad cognition and memory difficulties I have carefully described above.
However, I read that loose ligaments and connective tissue problems are found in the diseases called joint hypermobility syndrome, mid-dermal elastolysis, wrinkly skin syndrome, acquired cutis laxa, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and pseudoxanthoma elasticum; these conditions are also often associated with mental state changes and cognitive degradation, so they closely relate to my own condition. The closest fit to my skin’s appearance is the condition mid-dermal elastolysis, which is characterized by fine wrinkling of skin, as well as mild blotchy redness.
Mid-dermal elastolysis is due to loss of the elastic fibers in the dermal tissue; it has no specific known cause (but one hypotheses suggests it is due to the release of elastase by inflammatory cells, such as neutrophil elastase and fibroblast elastase; gelatinase release is also suspected).
For the moment, though, I am myself assuming, as a starting point, a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. This is because I have manifested many of the classic chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms, and more importantly, because there is a large range of interesting experimental treatments for CFS (and of those treatments I have already tried, some have helped quite considerably). Of course, if you think you have a serious infection of any sort you must seek professional medical advice. However, if the doctors have no solutions, and if your symptoms closely resemble CFS, you could do worse than trying some of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treatments listed here. Most of these listed treatments are safe and inexpensive. Trying them also helps keep optimism alive. However, there are symptoms in my condition that are a little different to CFS, such as the skin wrinkles, so it is NOT a perfect diagnosis.
Even in CFS, there are a number of different viruses and pathogens that can cause this condition. Often in medicine, the classification of a set of symptoms is important, but such a classification does not necessarily pinpoint the underlying cause of the disease. In this case, an infectious pathogen was probably the major cause of my symptoms. But which pathogen could have caused my illness? Let’s examine some possibilities. Bear in mind that blood tests for active viral infections in the body do not normally provide definitive conclusions, so there is no foolproof way of getting answers here. We must also use educated guesswork to a certain extent to help identify the culprit virus. This intelligent guesswork and detective work is the theme of this section.
A COXSACKIEVIRUS / ENTEROVIRUS INFECTION?
An initial symptom of this chronic sore throat virus that occurs in many people is herpangina (an inflamed red throat soreness on the pillars at the back soft palette, uvula and pharynx). In this case, the herpangina is without any pain, and without blisters, but with a cluster of small papules on the back of the throat (pharynx), which are more-or-less the same pinky color as the throat itself.
The herpangina symptom is one clue to the identity of this virus. The usual virus suspects for herpangina are enteroviruses. The enterovirus genus is part of the picornavirus family. Enteroviruses include the virus species: coxsackie viruses, the echo viruses, and the polio viruses, as well as enterovirus-68, enterovirus-70 and enterovirus-71 (EV-71 occasionally causes fatalities). Herpangina can be caused by coxsackie A viruses, coxsackie B viruses, and echoviruses. Many cosackieviruses are associated with upper respiratory tract infections, significant neurological disease, and persistent infections. In particular, coxsackie B4 attacks the natural killer cells of the immune system; this may help explain the observed immuno-suppression: the many secondary opportunistic infections that arise.
Note however that enterovirus herpangina normally has an incubation period of anything from 2 to 10 days (most medical literature I have read specifies these figures), whereas this sore throat virus that I have has a rapid incubation period of less than 24 hours. So this enterovirus assumption might fit. Particular species of enterovirus, such as enterovirus 70 (EV-70), can have a shorter incubation period of as fast as 12 hours (range: 12 hours to 3 days).
Another clue to the identity of this virus is that it causes systemic disease (the generalized spread of a virus throughout the body). Many virus species can cause herpangina and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), but there are only a handful of respiratory viruses that can also cause generalized disease. There are several enterovirus species that are both systemic and respiratory viruses.
Another clue to the nature of this infection is its ability to cause very significant mental changes, that is to say, it can enter the central nervous system. Enteroviruses certainly have this ability, and tend to attack the brain’s hypothalamus and the brain stem.
Another clue to the nature of this infection is the fact that it is persistent, remaining active constantly, rather than being cleared by the body. Again, there are several enteroviruses that can remain in the body as an active persistent infection, echovirus 11 being the most common of the persistent enterovirus infections.
Enteroviruses (along with herpesviruses) are increasing implicated as a major cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition which is thought caused by a persistent viral infection, not cleared from the body by the immune system. There is substantial evidence for a persistent enterovirus infection, particularly coxsackie B viruses, behind many cases of chronic fatigue syndrome; coxsackie viruses B1 and B4 are usually the culprits.
Many people with this chronic sore throat virus complain of partial hearing loss (or hearing loss just in one ear), increased tinnitus, and mild loss of balance, or even dizzy spells. This little cluster of symptoms is actually a well-known syndrome called Meniere’s disease. Clinical investigation has shown that coxsackie virus B5, influenza B virus and varicella zoster virus are the main causes of these type of ear symptoms. So, here is a further clue to the identity of this virus.
For a possible pharmaceutical cure for enteroviruses in the pipeline, read a breath of hope. This pharmaceutical is called Pleconaril. Pleconaril (Schering-Plough Corp.) is currently in phase III clinical trials, and it should be available soon.
AN EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS INFECTION?
Epstein Barr virus (EBV), also called HHV-4, is a member of the herpes family. EBV can also produce a herpangina type of sore throat - which was my very first symptom. Most people know Epstein Barr as the virus that causes mononucleosis. However, EBV has long been suspected in playing a causal role in chronic fatigue syndrome. This herpes virus can also create an immuno-suppressed state in an individual. Epstein-Barr virus (and cytomegalovirus also) is implicated in the oral health condition periodontitis, in which the gums are inflamed and receding. (I fast developed periodontitis from the virus I caught). Periodontitis gum disease is in part due to proliferating oral bacteria; I assume that these bacteria are increasing as a result of a slight immune suppression. Periodontitis is also associated with connective tissue dissolving enzymes (which we address later). Incidentally, gingivitis, which is where the gums are inflamed, but not receding, is associated with herpes simplex and varicella-zoster viruses. I have the more severe periodontitis receding gums.)
Epstein-Barr can produce significant neurological symptoms. Thus this virus does fit many of my symptoms. So could I have a virulent strain of Epstein-Barr virus? One difficulty with this hypothesis is that the incubation period of EBV is 4 to 6 weeks, whereas my chronic sore throat virus incubates in less than 24 hours, so it does not fit the observations, unless there is a new Epstein-Barr variant or sub-type that has a very rapid incubation period of less than 24 hour. There are in fact two known strains of Epstein-Barr, type A and type B (also called EBV-1 and EBV-2), but neither of these have this rapid incubation.
The antiviral drugs Valganciclovir and Ganciclovir have been successfully used to treat Epstein-Barr virus infections; these drugs are, however, not without risks.
HERPES SIX VIRAL INFECTION?
There are other respiratory viruses that might be suspected: human herpes 6 (HHV-6), especially the A-variant HHV-6A, can induce immunosuppression, neurological symptoms and chronic fatigue syndrome. HHV-6A inhibits immune function by selectively blocking the maturation of dendritic cells and Interleukin-12 p70 production. Dendritic cells help coordinated the immune response local to their vicinity. Interleukin-12 is secreted by these cells. There has been some speculation that HHV-6A is partly responsible for the immune deficiency found in HIV/AIDS. HHV-6A also generates quinolinic acid in the body; quinolinic acid is a powerful neurotoxin. Herpes 6 has an incubation period of 5 to 15 days, much slower than the 1 day incubation period of the virus I contracted.
For chronic fatigue syndrome due to HHV-6, treatment success has recently been achieved using the antiviral drug Valganciclovir. This study is being conducted at Stanford University, by Dr Jose Montoya.
PARVOVIRUS B19 VIRAL INFECTION?
Parvovirus B19 (recently renamed erythrovirus B19) is known to cause a persistent bodily infection as well as connective tissue disease. It has long been suspected as a possible cause of myalgic encephalomyelitis. Parvovirus B19 can also cause carpal tunnel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, Raynaud’s disease. In my case, I think parvovirus may be ruled out on the basis that it has an incubation period of 4 to 14 days, which is too slow: the virus I have shows its symptoms within 24 hours of first contracting it.
For chronic fatigue syndrome caused by parvovirus B19, Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment has worked in some cases.
PARAINFLUENZA VIRUS 5 INFECTION?
Human parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV-5 or HPIV-5), has recently been implicated as a causal factor in chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis. Parainfluenza virus 5 (also called Simian Virus 5) targets and destroys the STAT-1 protein. The STAT family of proteins form a vital part of the human immune system, and insufficient STAT-1 creates a diminished immune response, leaving an individual unable to effectively fight viral and bacterial infections. Certainly many CFS patients have STAT-1 absent in their blood, and parainfluenza virus 5 is the strongest viral candidate for explaining this absence.
Could my array of symptoms result from a parainfluenza virus 5 infection? Let us first examine the incubation period. Not much data is yet available for parainfluenza virus 5. However, parainfluenza viruses 1 to 4, which are common cold viruses from the same paramyxovirus family, generally have an incubation period in the range of 1 to 7 days. Assuming that parainfluenza virus 5 has a similar incubation period, then this approximately fits with the observed less than 1 day incubation period of my virus. So in this respect, parainfluenza virus 5 could well be the virus that I caught.
Furthermore, parainfluenza viruses 1 and 3 can cause chronic rhinitis and loss of smell; these are symptoms I definitely experienced; perhaps parainfluenza virus 5 might share these characteristics. All parainfluenza viruses are able to enter the brain and the nervous system. Parainfluenza virus 5 has been frequently found in the brain of multiple sclerosis patients, though parainfluenza viruses in general do not seem to be associated with causing significant mental state changes. Nevertheless, if parainfluenza virus 5 is significantly weakening my immune system, secondary infections with other viruses already in my body, such as HHV-6 or EBV, may then arise and cause the mental symptoms I experienced. Science is just beginning to examine disease conditions caused by co-infections: that is, where two or more simultaneously-acting viruses are responsible for the pathogenesis of a disease.
Many paramyxovirus viruses can be controlled with neuraminidase inhibitor drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). Natural neuraminidase inhibitors include kelp and resveratrol. So it may be worth trying out neuraminidase inhibitors to see if they have any effect on a suspected parainfluenza virus 5 infection.
OTHER POSSIBLE VIRUSES
Neurovirulent Influenza A virus attacks brains regions such as the substantia nigra (a brain area linked to motivation), the habenular, thalamus, hypothalamus and the brainstem. Influenza A can occasionally remain as a mild persistent long-term infection. Then there is Borna disease virus, which causes powerful depresion and anhedonia; however Borna is a zoonotic virus, and it cannot pass from person-to-person.
AN EMERGING NEW RESPIRATORY VIRUS?
In the last ten years, many new human respiratory viruses have been discovered. These include: human metapneumonia virus (hMPV), mimivirus, parvovirus-4 (PARV4), WU virus (WU polyomavirus), TT virus, melaka virus, mapuera virus, menangle virus, New Haven coronavirus, coronavirus NL63, coronavirus HKU1. The clinical signs, symptoms and pathogenesis for most of these are not fully known at this stage. Could my virus be an emerging infectious disease within this list, or an as yet unknown newly-emerging viral pathogen?
MORE INFO
For more information on all these various viruses, see here.
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| FURTHER OBSERVATIONS AND HYPOTHESES |
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EXTRACELLULAR MATRIX-DISSOLVING ENZYMES
I have a suspicion that my viral infection is generating large amounts of extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes (these are enzymes that can dissolve the body’s connective tissue, such as collagen, elastin and gelatin). It is these extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes which are causing my wrinkly skin and loose ligaments (weak legs and hip girdle).
Many microbes - viruses, bacteria and parasites - generate extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes, to eat their way through body tissue, whihc allows these microbes spread themselves easily throughout the body. The resulting high levels of connective tissue-destroying enzymes generated can then destroy skin collagen and skin elastin, creating a wrinkled skin appearance. These same extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes may also dissolve connective tissue in ligaments and tendons, thereby causing excessive joint laxity, which leads to a feeling of weak legs.
There are many extracellular matrix-degrading enzymes, including the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family of enzymes; and specific enzymes such as neutrophil elastase (also called leukocyte elastase). The matrix metalloproteinases are labelled MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, etc. Each MMP can dissolve different types of connective tissue. For example, MMP-1 (also called Interstitial collagenase) can dissolve collagen. MMP-1 is found at high levels in smokers, and is thought to be responsible for the collagen breakdown that creates the particular type of wrinkles often seen on long-term smokers’ faces.
Elastin is a very important structural component of skin, ligaments and tendons. It usually exists in the form of elastic fibers, which provides taught strength and flexibility. The enzymes capable of destroying elastin are: MMP-2 (gelatinase A), MMP-9 (gelatinase B) and MMP-12 (macrophage elastase, or metalloelastase). In addition, neutrophil elastase (leukocyte elastase, or elastase 2) can destroy elastin.
Measurements have shown that neutrophil elastase is often abnormally high in chronic fatigue syndrome patients. These people that have chronic fatigue syndrome frequently suffer excessive joint laxity, so this ties up: perhaps it is neutrophil elastase that is eating away the elastin in the ligaments of CFS patients and creating joint laxity. In addition, neutrophil elastase has recently been implicated in the initial destruction of the periodontal ligament, which helps instigate periodontal disease. This may provided an explanation of the periodontal problems I have experienced as a result of my viral infection (although other enzymes are also implicated in periodontal disease, notably MMP-9).
The skin condition that most closely resembles the wrinkles I have is called mid-dermal elastolysis (MDE). In mid-dermal elastolysis, these is a loss of elastin in the skin, caused by high levels of the elastin dissolving enzyme MMP-9 in these patients. Assuming my wrinkles are similar, this suggests that MMP-9 may be playing a role in causing them.
Memory Problems and Dementia
Another feature of my infection is mental degradation, with my working memory rapidly disintegrating. Now, apart from the virus directly infecting and destroying brain cells, note also that some matrix metalloproteinases, namely MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-9, are actually neurotoxic. This is possibly another way that an infection can damage the central nervous system, via the neurotoxic effects of its MMP (and possibly other) metabolites. In fact, these neurotoxic MMPs have been implicated as causal factors in many types of dementia. Interestingly, dementia is a symptom of some skin disorders. For example, in cutis laxa (a disease similar to wrinkly skin syndrome), in which there is a measured tissue increase in MMP-1 and MMP-9 levels in the body, dementia is common.
HIV/AIDS-related dementia may also be caused by matrix-metalloproteinases: in HIV-infected individuals, high levels of MMP-1 and MMP-9 are measured. In systemic lupus erythematosus, high levels of MMP-9 get induced by the pro-inflammatory cytokines that abound in lupus, and this MMP-9 is thought responsible for the brain damage often found in lupus.
| MMP | Name | Neuro- toxic |
CFS | Cutis laxa |
MDE | Smoker | HIV |
| MMP-1 | Interstitial collagenase | Yes | - | High | - | High | High |
| MMP-2 | Gelatinase-A | Yes | - | - | - | - | - |
| MMP-9 | Gelatinase-B | Yes | - | High | High | - | High |
| - | Neutrophil elastase | - | High | - | High | - | - |
Studies in periodontal gum disease (which my virus has rapidly initiated) suggest that the gum tissue is eaten away by the action of matrix metalloproteinases. However, different studies have pointed at different culprit MMPs, including: MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-8, MMP-9, MMP-13, and neutrophil elastase. I do not know which MMPs are responsible for my receding gum line. There are various inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases can been taken daily in order to mitigate the effect of MMP attacking and eating away the gums. For example, low dose doxycycline (sold as Periostat) can inhibit MMP-8 and MMP-9.
More significantly, MMP-9 is actual expressed by neurons themselves in the hippocampus of the adult brain, where MMP-9 seems to fundamentally be involved in the process of storing memories in the brain. MMP-9 is used in the hippocampus to dissolve and remodel the synaptic connections between neurons. This use of MMP-9 by the brain is, of course, performed delicately, deploying MMP-9 carefully, and only at the appropriate locality, to make precise and specific changes to the brain’s synaptic connections, in order to lay down memory information. Clearly then, excessive quantities of MMP-9 gushing around the brain will indiscriminately dissolve synapses, which will obviously cause havoc to the brain’s operation and memory processes.
This is why, I suspect, the memory and dementia problems I have experienced from my viral infection may well be due to an excessive level of MMP-9 gushing around in the body, this abnormally high level of MMP-9 interfering with the delicate use of MMP-9 in the brain. This flood of MMP-9 may be indiscriminately dissolving my synapses. This is just a hypotheses at this stage.
Note: Epstein Barr virus infection is associated with increased expression of MMP-9. Herpes simplex infection can generate MMP-9 also. High levels of MMP-9 are found in coxsackie B3 myocarditis.
This MMP-9 hypothesis can explain a lot of observations: all the skin symptoms, memory problems, dementia, periodontal receding gum problems might all be caused by one factor: high levels of circulating MMP-9.
The question is, what can be done about this? This is not easy, since there is some evidence that MMP-9 plays a vital role in the fight against infection, and therefore taking MMP-9 inhibitors may make things worse (this is at least the case with the coxsackie B3 virus cardiac myopathy: studies have have shown that using MMP-9 inhibitors here actually made the infection worse). Not only that, but MMP-9 inhibitors may possibly alter the normal expression of MMP-9 required by the brain during the memory recording process (presumably, depending on whether they can penetrate though the blood-brain barrier). So I guess proper understanding of the roles and processes of MMP-9 is required.
MMPs have been implicated as causal factors of brain damage in a wide set of diseases, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia (multi-infarct dementia), and many others.
So this general approach of trying to reduce MMP-9 and/or neutrophil elastase levels could be an excellent strategy for preventing central nervous system damage that results from toxic metabolites created by this chronic virus infection.
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| SUMMARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS VIRUS |
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CLINICAL SYMPTOMS AND MANIFESTATIONS
The clinical manifestations below have been observed in at least 15 people who also caught this same chronic sore throat virus. The people observed include all ages, and both sexes.
✔ Mode of Transmission
Transmitted person-to-person, probably via saliva and/or nasal secretions. The virus will transmit to most members of a household or office within a year or two, if one member is infected, particularly if that person suffers a persistent sore throat and/or persistent nasal mucus (which act as constant sources of new viral particles shed via the sore throat saliva, or via the chronic nasal discharge). Normal household contact will therefore spread the virus to everyone, but only after a long time. The fact that transmission is not fast (compared to a cold for example) suggests that the viral particles do not survive long in the environment. Transmission usually occurs, it appears, via sharing food or drinks, or by intimate contact such as kissing. There may also be the possibility of fecal-oral transmission, given that this virus replicates in the intestines, but I believe its main route of transmission is via respiratory secretions.
✔ Incubation Period
The incubation period is VERY fast: can be as fast as 8 hours (noted by observation on several occasions, using a reliable methodology). This very rapid incubation should be a good clue to the nature and identity of this virus.
✔ Prodrome
This viral infection usually starts in one of three ways:- (1) A sore throat on the pharynx, tonsillar pillars on soft palette, and the upper esophagus. There is a mild dry cough with little sputum. The throat is sore, but with no pain, and little fever. This throat infection runs for many months before it begins to subside. However it never fully disappears, and usually remains as a chronic sore throat and/or with constant nasal mucus production (although the sore throat becomes a more subdued after a few years). (2) Alternatively, the infection can first begin as a gastric upset, with vomiting and diarrhea which lasts for one or two days; there are NO signs of skin rash whatsoever; there is a fever during this prodrome, but unfortunately I have no measurement of the exact fever temperature. The only skin change apparent at this incubation stage is a slight red flushing, presumed due just to the patient’s temperature. (3) Sometimes the infection starts with a cluster of lesions and scabs surrounding the facial lips, these lesions crusting like large cold sores. In this case, there is also a significant swelling of the lymph nodes (swollen glands) in the head and neck, with these swollen lymph nodes easing off after a week or two, as the lesions clear up. No other prodrome sequences have been noted. NOTE: when the infection begins as a sore throat, a (milder) gastric upset can appear months later. Similarly, when the infection begins as a gastric upset, sore throat can appear weeks later. The virus does not stay localized, it usually spreads systemically.
✔ Period of Communicability
People with this virus who have a chronic sore throat or constant nasal secretions (which are common symptoms) are easily able to transmit this virus many years after their initial infection prodrome, possibly indefinitely, via the constant source of viral particles shed from the saliva in the mouth and/or from the persistent nasal discharge.
The virus can cause a characteristic, tell-tale constant stuffy / runny nose (chronic rhinitis / post nasal drip), with thick, viscous, congested mucus. Blowing your nose with a tissue to clear this mucus build-up is necessary every hour or so, and requires of necessity strong, long blow of the nose to clear out the mucus. Once begun, this constant runny nose and the thick nasal mucus persist permanently, even after many years, with no sign of remission. Exactly the same is true for the sore throat, which persists permanently, but sometimes becoming more subdued in time. NOTE: some people can have the chronic runny nose without the chronic sore throat, and vice versa. Others have both, and other people neither. Recurrent sore throat: sometimes the throat with clear up for a day, but then quickly return. These constant nasopharyngeal symptoms are characteristic, and make the period of communicability very long (many years) or infinite. About 80% of people with this virus display a chronic stuffy / runny nose, and about 30% get the chronic sore throat.
✔ Contagiousness
Even though this virus has an indefinitely long period of communicability (facilitated by its chronic nasopharyngeal infection) and even though its incubation period is extremely rapid, by contrast, this virus is not highly contagious. Its person-to-person contagiousness is in fact quite low. This can be easily deduced from the observation that during normal household contact, this virus can take over a year to pass to all members of the household.
✔ Mental State Changes
About 2 months after the initial prodrome, powerful mental state changes begin (depression, fatigue, apathy, loss of motivation, anhedonia, dysthymia, athymhormia, social withdrawal, a sense of sleepiness, mild dementia, some memory problems, loss of organizational capabilities). In some people, uncharacteristic outbursts of aggression appear. The severity of the mental state changes varies considerably from person to person: some people are badly affected, other just minimally affected. What is clear is that the mental symptoms, whilst they do improve a little, linger permanently.
✔ Pins and Needles
About 4 months after the initial prodrome, a “pins and needles” sensation (paresthesia) appears in some people. This tends to be more in the legs, but will often manifest throughout the whole body.
✔ Receding Gums: Periodontal Disease
Also at 4 months, receding gums and a rapid sudden onset of periodontal disease arises. Dental plaque formation significantly increases. There may be new dental carries suddenly appearing, even for people with excellent oral hygiene habits.
✔ Skin Wrinkling
About 12 to 18 months after the initial prodrome, the first signs of fine skin wrinkling are noticed. This closely-spaced wrinkling has a texture reminiscent of parchment paper. These premature skin aging wrinkles start to appear at first on the top of the hands, but the whole body is soon involved. The wrinkled skin produced by this virus looks slightly different in appearance compared to the look of normal skin aging. For one thing, the viral wrinkles are much finer than normal wrinkles, with this unusual parchment-like appearance. They are not localized, but rather a consistent uniform fine texture (as shown in hand picture above). Also, as we know, normal skin aging happens quite slowly - in normal aging, significant changes in skin appearance are noticeable as the decades go by, not as a year goes by. By contrast, the aging skin process that arises from catching this virus manifests more rapidly, with significant changes noticeable in a year or two. The degree of wrinkling this virus causes varies from person to person. Older people (55+) have a greater, and a more rapid increase in body wrinkles, and exhibit slightly deeper wrinkle furrows. Younger people (30 to 55 years) have slightly more shallow furrows. In both cases, however, the wrinkles have this characteristic very fine texture, with parchment-like appearance that are distinct from normal aging wrinkles. People under about 30 or so will tend not to show any of these wrinkles, presumably because their younger skin is more robust in countering the skin-damaging effect of this virus.
✔ Weak Legs and Hip Joint Laxity
Also at 12 to 18 months, the first signs of hip joint weakness and looseness appear. The joint laxity applies to the whole body, but is most noticeable in the legs and hips. The feeling is that the legs and hips are weaker, a little loose, and unstable.
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