From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2005-03-05 17:34:32 UTC
Subject: Seeking refs on Cytokine Storms
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com, ferret-list@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Message-id: <4400bacd8141d738750f3b780cf862aa@mac.com>
Every once in a while I do things that make Dr. Bruce Williams jokingly
write back to me, "Oh, oh, Sukie's been thinking again."
Today is one of those days.
I'd like to know more about cytokine storms. I am wondering if perhaps
there may be specific groups among the ferrets who get the current
mystery disease/DIM who may be most vulnerable due to cytokine storms.
(In humans these immune system responses are postulated as one reason
why the very worst influenzas (like the one during the 19teens) are
more likely to take young children, people 18 to 30, and women who have
been pregnant in recent years. Some isolated areas with high birth
rates were hit especially hard then. (The best survival was in ages 40
to 60 in humans in that pandemic, while people over 60 and especially a
decade or more older simply are usually more prone to other infection
related problems.)
If something like this is happening in ferrets who get the mystery
disease then the groups with the most active immune systems could be
the ones who are most vulnerable and if so it may be useful to know
which groups to not usually worry as much about. Also, in that
situation it may be possible for elderly ferrets to have serious
illness from the same disease but without the same symptom grouping
which is caused by extreme immune response in those with stronger
immune systems (if this is not an autoimmune disorder but a disease
that triggers a disasterous cytokine storm in some groups), and in
that case perhaps other age groups get the illness but sail through it.
That is all only postulating, of course, so it easily could mean
nothing at all. It just seems like maybe it is a possible interesting
direction to learn more.
I can do more internet searching, and will, of course, but if someone
happens across an interesting non-internet reference on cytokine storms
could you let me know, please, and maybe assist me in getting a copy
when that is viable? I appreciate it.