Saturday, March 26, 2011

Nerves as roots

To test the mechanism of the serpin off growth and serine protease on I was having difficulty with fungus.   I couldn't find serpins in them.  I did find a paper evaluating the content of mediums used to grow fungus.  Mediums containing fish seemed to grow in a more thready root-like shape  whereas other mediums containing gluten caused a rounder morphology.  I did not find a documented mechanism of hyphal root growth of fungus specifically controlled by serpins.

What I was hoping to find was that fungal infections would change morphologies. If a serpin was present the mold -root growth would hault and it would switch to a  yeast morphology instead.  I was hoping to find the pathway already documented.  I couldn't even find serpins.  I started researching the evolution of serpins and it was not until eukaryotes appeared that serpins became abundant in the genetic code.  I am hoping that with so many serpins to choose from in eukaryotes that my growth pathway would be conserved in several.  That I could find the growth on and off growth mechanism of serpins in eukaryotes.  I decided to look for this in people.

 Which brings us to the end of the last blog focusing on maspin the breast cancer serpin.  When maspin is lost it causes the uncontrolled growth of cancer.  Yet a breast cell is not root like. Nerves on the other had are very root like. Nerves had a documented serpin called neuroserpin which did appear to be somehow involved with growth inhibition.  So i then started to look for a serine protease in nerves. I went looking for an on switch for nerve growth.  Interestingly the APP protein that becomes the amyloid plaque in Alzheimer's has no known normal function. The app protein is associated with nerve axon tips and has a serine protease in it.  So I started an entirely new theory using the same mechanism.  I am now hoping to find that the APP protein causes nerve growth and perhaps even how it does.  I am currently looking at HtlrA as a serine protease that helps extend microtubules the intracellular scaffold. Perhaps this is how the APP protein sitting in the membrane at the tip of the nerve's axon causes nerve root to extend toward other nerves. Possible?  

I apologize that I think so densely and cover so much material  so quickly.  I hope someone out there can follow me.  Perhaps over time with more blogging i will learn to expand and extrapolate on each idea enough that people will understand.  Does anyone out there follow me yet? Does anyone understand what  I am saying?

Angela Biggs





Friday, March 25, 2011

Organic Gardening

Gluten, casein, and ovalbumin were 3 proteins capable of inducing antibodies but how?
If they were functioning as serpins like the human maspin which is involved with breast cancer then they might be involved with growth.  Maspin is a serpin which when lost causes breast cancer to grow out of control.  So i began to think about these serpins as growth inhibitors and doing searches online.  I ran across an article about corn gluten inhibiting the growth of crab grass.  When i looked up the original article by Ohio state I discovered that the original experiment was looking at a parasitic grass fungus.  Grass seed grown on the corn meal failed to germinate and the fungus failed to be parasitic.  The researchers conducting the experiment focused on the inhibition of the grass roots specifically and started to sell the corn gluten as an organic crab grass treatment for golfcourses.  In my mind I realized if the gluten haulted the grass roots it might hault the fungus roots too which would explain why it failed to thrive.
Then I remembered that to prevent powdery mildew the organic method was to spray  milk on the leaves.  Was it possible that milk casein haulted powdery mildew roots in the same manner that corn gluten haulted root growth?

This year i conducted a very relaxed experiment with my kids, not a very scientific one.  I decided to grow grass seed in paper cups but expose some to wheat gluten and milk everyday.  Only the controls grew grass for my children.  Now I could not say the effect was just casein because any of the other proteins in milk could be involved.  I still suspected that gluten was actually something similar to a gluten serpin because the amino acid sequence was right but i had enough evidence now that i felt i was on the right track.

Taking the root idea back to the human maspin...well breast cells don't really have a root.  Then it dawned on me the cells in the body that grow the most like a root are nerves.  When I looked up what was know about nerves i realized that there was a neuroserpin which did in some way hault growth but that the entire area was hazy.  I hadn't seen an "on serine protease" for the Maspin. Could I see one for neuroserpin?
I have covered a lot in a short period of time here. Can anyone out there follow my logic about serpins and roots?
Angela Biggs

Milk, wheat, and eggs

see update on bottom...this hypothesis was wrong 

I have hesitated to start a blog but my lack of progress, writing in isolation, has made me realize I should at least try this format.

I have been trying to make sense of the patterns I see. I have been trying to develop reasonable theories to explain what i am seeing.

I have a theory that I developed involving serpins and serine proteases in the development of autoimmune disease. There are so many autoimmune diseases let me say that my theory rests in the area of overlap.  What they have in common. What i noticed first were the common triggers : wheat, egg, and milk.  How many autoimmune diseases can you associate with these?  Here's a start: celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, autism, ulcerative colitis, schizophrenia, crohn's, psoriasis, and eczema. Yes i am including eczema which has tradtionally been considered an allergy. I think allergies as an immune system error need to be included especially when the top allergies are: milk wheat, and eggs.
My instinct says something is going on here.  This is not just a leaky gut issue.  What do these trigger proteins have in common? How do they trigger the immune system? What are we missing here?
The protiens in milk, wheat, and eggs that have the most antibodies reacting are casein, gluten, and ovalbumin. Ovalbumin is a serine protease inhibitor, serpin for short. Which then leads us to the question how could a serpin trigger the immune system?
And gluten which is not a serpin...must look like one because we can see in Celiac disease the induction of antibodies.  Some forms of Celiac disease has been associated with Candida, is that relevant?
Eczema is milk and egg senstive and look worse when those foods are eaten. (i know my daughter had this)  The only infection found associated with eczema has been a form of staph not candida.  So we have different diseases with different culprits and we can't prove the infections are involved however I suspect the triggering mechanism might be the same.

I have more theory...but I will stop here. What do you think? Am I crazy? Do you see what I see?
Angela

After years of looking at the diseases that are gluten sensitive I have found that they are all barrier crossing infections. Infections that have the ability to cross the intestine or the blood brain barrier. The gluten crosses using the holes made by these infections and over stimulates the immune system.