Saturday, July 11, 2015

Is Halothane Hepatitis caused by cross-targeting autoimmunity?

Autoimmune cross-targeting hypothesis: a virus marks the inside of a cell while a larger infection marks the outside and the combination triggers autoimmune disease.  The larger infections attack is stopped with IgG4 (anti-insulin) so the body can focus on the smaller infection inside.

Does the anesthetic Halothane replace the need for a virus in the cross-targeting scenario ? Existing as a foreign object inside host cells and seen by the immune system as "not myself" and triggering autoimmunity when a larger infection like e.coli has already targeted the outside.

Halothane hepatitis
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7066130
Note that the child later went on to develop type 1 diabetes.

Halothane hepatitis is more commonly seen with patients with other autoimmune diseases: like
celiac disease and  type 1 diabetes.

In general autoimmune hepatitis is seen more often in celiac disease patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23403438

If an infection like e.coli is the culprit in the bladder infections, celiac disease, and type one diabetes group does it also involve the liver for Hepatitis?  E.coli when it breaks down red blood cells it makes bilirubin. The liver when it breaks down red blood cells makes bilirubin. It would be interesting to know if e.coli infects liver tissue or if antibodies against bilirubin are involved with autoimmune liver disease.

E.coli and Celiac
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/10/175

E.coli does appear to infect the liver on occasion
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16437317

Hepatitis and anesthetics
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3686821

The case files of anyone reacting to halothane should be examined for these possible links.

Updated may 2018 with IgG4 sentence

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