Addison's Disease And Pregnenolone

[j.]

I find it pretty shocking that there is so little information on the internet about what happens when people with Addison's disease are given pregnenolone.

Addison's disease is the inability of the adrenal gland to produce some hormones. Since pregnenolone is a precursor to these hormones, you'd think you'd at least find whether it officially works.

Is anyone aware of some literature on the topic?

 

[Blossom]

You know already that no one will fund a study for pregnenolone since it can't be patented by the pharmaceutical industry. It's a great idea though. I wonder how many great ideas like yours are thought of but go no where because of the system?

 

[Suikerbuik]

Would indeed be interesting to have more information about this.

Theoretically it should depends of the origin of Addison's disease i.e. Hypothamalus, pituiary or the adrenals self. In the first 2 you would think that pregnenolone is an option, but in the other recent pregnenolone thread you can see ACTH does regulate enzymes required for steroidogenesis, to what extent pregnenolone can be used as a replacement would be an interesting study.

If it's the adrenals itself are damaged I don't think pregnenolone would be much of a benefit.
- progesterone reductase deficiency --> no progesterone from pregnenolone.
- 17 a-hydroxylase deficiency --> no 17-hydroxyprogesterone from progesterone.
- 21-hydroxylase or 11 beta-hydroxylase deficieny --> no cortisol from 17 a-hydroxyprogesterone.
In these cases I'd not try to use pregnenolone because of unknown (probably high) concentrations of intermediates.

What I personally would love to know, is to have an impression of the regeneration capacity of damaged adrenals in vivo, as Dr Peat suggested from his experiments. Most problems with adrenal gland disease are seemingly caused by TBC (mycobacterium tuberculosis) or have a fungal origin, but what if we find a way to eliminate this microbial burden? And in case of ipdiopathic origin, one option I think would certainly plausible, is the restortion of gut wall integrity. Because a compromised gut wall integrity really is an origin of many (auto-)antibodies, and in this case have affinity for the gland.

Anyway this may be is a bridge to far for now.. We hardly know what our microbiome is yet, let alone what the function of these genes are and what antibodies are produced against which proteins, but that the microbiota is also implicated in disease (also Addisons) is one certain thing. I'd even dare to form the next hypothesis: The serotonin some of us try to counteract with drugs, may be better restored, by balancing the microbiome. But we can only handle a new microbiome with a functional immune system and efficient metabolism, but these 2 are obviously also (partly!) regulated by our microbiome and certainly affected in diseased people, which make it an incredible complex situation..

Edit: sorry the latter is too far off-topic, I'd prefer not having responses to this in this thread, unless that'll be accepted.

 

[Suikerbuik]

Well at least some sience is getting closer!

Abstract
Epstein-Barr virus and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) have been associated to multiple sclerosis (MS). We searched for antibodies against the homologous peptides Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1)400-413, MAP_0106c protein (MAP)121-132, and myelin basic protein (MBP)85-98 on a MS Sardinian cohort, showing that these antibodies are highly prevalent among MS patients compared to healthy controls. Competitive assay demonstrated that antibodies recognizing EBNA1400-413 and MAP121-132 cross-react with MBP85-98, possibly through a molecular mimicry mechanism. Indeed, the fact that peptides from different pathogens can be cross-recognized by antibodies targeting self-epitopes supports the hypothesis that EBV and MAP might trigger autoimmunity through a common target.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24642384#

 

[Kyle Bigman]

So, to treat the underlying cause of Addison's you would have to somehow destroy the bacteria or wipe out the virus completely. But, I don't know if it is possible to get rid of EBV completely because doesn't it affect the genes transcription or something? I had EBV and other viruses, and now, after finasteride, I feel the hormone shift caused some immune trigger where now it just attacks various parts of my body, adrenals included. Not sure if it is Addison's per se, but of course I would want to solve the underlying problem. I guess I could backpedal by trying to re-shift the hormones (but might be too late), or try to get rid of the viruses, which as I said I don't know is possible.