Proliferative and Non-proliferative Enemy Combatants and the Immune System
In a prior blog I described the situations the immune system has to deal with using war-fare terminology. Actually it is both appropriate and I think makes the subject more comprehendible.
Proliferative enemy combatants are enemies that can grow in number in the host, and the two large categories are infection (exogenous combatants) and cancers (endogenous combatants). The major issue with these is that by growing in number they can cause great injury or death by compressing surrounding structures locally(brain cancer classic for that) or spreading all over the body (most cancers/malignancies: classics: lung, breast, colon cancer). Infections generally cause great injury/death by release of toxic substances, while spreading around the body.
A classic nonproliferative enemy combatant is gadolinium (Gd), which is also exogenous. In distinction though from cancers and infections, it really is not doing anything - not releasing anything, not growing in number. Not for example like plutonium which would release radiation, and actively then causing radiation damage/death. Gadolinium is essentially just sitting there. In the host immune system desire to combat the enemy it is largely 'friendly fire' that is causing the damage in humans. Cytokines are a major part of the 'friendly fire'. Again, not by active intent, but Gd does passively insert itself into chemical processes in the body that use Ca (or sodium) and this is where additional damage occurs in the form of neuropathic diseases, such as small fiber neuropathy.
Where Gd can simulate proliferative disease is when the patient has the unfortunate circumstance where they get repeat GBCA injection when they already have GDD. It appears invariably this makes the GDD condition worse - as basically it has created a simulated-proliferative state. This returns to one of the central points I make in these blogs:
If you think you have GDD never get another GBCA injection again, no matter what anyone tells you.
Getting additional GBCA injections creates the simulated-proliferative state of an enemy combatant, and this always makes you sicker than you were before.
Stay tuned on the latest advancements: