ARE WE NEXT? Fungal Infections Have Caused More Than 80% of Known Disease-Driven Animal Extinctions

Excellent thread.

You have scared the stuff'n out of me. Seriously. 4 years ago when I was being diagnosed, they misdiagnosed me and said I had a massive fungal infection (turns out I didn't have anything fungal at all). They put me on on high doses of every fungal medicine known. Some were evil ... ancobon was horrifying. These things are very hard on a healthy body, let alone one with autoimmune issues. They were painful and the crossed the brain barrier causing 'issues' with the brain (like hallucinations etc).

I have always said that humans aren't the dominant species on Earth.
Virus' are. Fungus is a close second.

a reply to: loam

You dont get it. Do you really think the huge lifeform that is the Earth isnt aware on some levels of the situation? Whether you think it is only a rock or a superior living being, doesnt change the fact that any, any lifeform whose body is attacked or put in imbalances will try to correct and resist. The idea is, although going slowly, the earth might be creating new diseases and microorganisms that would drive mankind to extinction or severerly reduce it. As well as cataclysms. Take it the same way as a diseased body who reacts to pathogens and intruders by finding ways to eradicate them, without consideration of their own existences or perspectives (they got one, to be sure), the goal being solely to protect itself and heal. As above, so below.

Its only hypothetic of course but the odds are high.

a reply to: _damon

I don't see this as directed with intelligence, though the end result is the same. There are things which most people would consider to be "living" and things which most would be considered "not living" that seem to be working against our actions on the earth. I think an understanding of biology and earth sciences explains this, not some sort of collective will and intention to rid the parasite.

Same end result. We're creating too much imbalance within various systems, and the equation will be balanced one way or another.

a reply to: loam

...Obviously, something very significant is taking place. Most of these fungal diseases have only appeared in the past 30 years. I've read all of the various causation theories...climate change, pesticide use, GMOs, human population and mobility....but the truth is, no one really seems to know for sure. Maybe it's a combination of all-of-the-above.

One thing is certain, however, the environmental, health and economic toll is huge........and growing.

....Brave new world....

Brave new world indeed. Whoda thunk it? The lowly fungus is the biggest threat. But would it surprise you to learn that fungi and prions have a healthy, established relationship? Sometimes called "Transformer Proteins," prions seem to be involved with most new diseases - even Ebola. Promiscuous little tarts they are.

Prions can improve the health of fungal populations

Prions, infectious agents composed of proteins with a specific misfolded and transmissible 3D structure that cuases diseases like BSE, can be present in fungal populations on a large scale, preventing the spread of fungal parasites and keeping the population relatively healthy. This remarkable discovery was published in this week’s edition of the scientific magazine PNAS by scientists from Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR. What makes the findings so extraordinary is that many scientists had previously assumed that prions had only a negative effect on the health of their ‘host’.

Prions of Fungi: Inherited Structures and Biological Roles

The term 'prion' means an infectious protein that does not need an accompanying nucleic acid. There are six fungal prions, including four self-propagating amyloids and two enzymes that are necessary to activate their inactive precursors. Here we explore the scope of the prion phenomenon, the biological and evolutionary roles of prions, the structural basis of the amyloid prions, and the prominent role of chaperones (proteins that affect the folding of other proteins) and other cellular components in prion generation and propagation.

High natural prevalence of a fungal prion

Prions are infectious proteinaceous particles. Prions were first identified in mammals as the causal agents of a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases termed spongiform encephalopathies including Scrapie, BSE, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (1, 2). Many prion proteins were also identified in fungi, especially in the yeast S. cerevisiae (3). Currently, ∼10 fungal prion proteins have been identified and 19 additional candidates await further characterization (4–6).

...Sorry. Just could not resist. : )

a reply to: soficrow

It looks like all of the ways fungi and prions interact is still pretty unclear.

Do you think their interaction may also play a role in prion replication?

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: soficrow

It looks like all of the ways fungi and prions interact is still pretty unclear.

Do you think their interaction may also play a role in prion replication?

Prions clearly play an essential role as "First Responders" to environmental change - likely in most living things but definitely in people, plants, viruses, fungi and other microbes. Remember that all living things are made of proteins, and virtually any protein can misfold and sometimes, become a prion - but not all prions do bad things.

The fungi-prion interactions studied seem to be mainly beneficial to fungi - but maybe not to other lifeforms, as with Ebola's "Transformer Protein." ....But the more the reports come in, and the more I learn, the more convinced I am that 'sharing via prions' is a (hierarchic in practice) mechanism for bringing lifeforms on Earth into harmony with each other and the environment.

It is an excellently prepared thread, surprised not many responded - perhaps due to the airline disaster.
I am still looking up some of the articles quoted. I have held this view for long - that systemic diseases partly derived from fungi in the unbalanced ecosystem may cause great havoc in the near future.

As far as biofilms are considered, it is certainly a lead.
My sister for years believed that she was gluten-intolerant. Her IBS disappeared practically when avoiding gluten. However, this spring she reurtned to Hungary for a visit and found she could eat local bread. Her theory was that North American wheat is heavily altered - it sounded fantastic until I actually found a pop science article that said so. I'll dig that one out soon, it was months ago. I remember that not only GMO but selective breeding as well as pesticides were pointed at, but the scientist clearly said avoid wheat products if you have a fungal disease.

Another thing to consider is that many fungal diseases are undiagnosed in many parts of the world as other things. I remember when I first got a severel intestinal candida - I got depressed, my sex drive was zero, plus a host of neural problems. When I was free of the mercury fillings which probably started the thing, along with heavy antibiotics, and I took antifungals one day per week, I had severe reactions such as nausea, dizziness, disorientation (I was going about in the city where I grew up and I suddenly had no idea where I was), short-term memory troubles, fantastic but scary dreams where mushrooms sometimes played a part.

Third, there are a host of modern clinical trials for remedies against fungal pathogens in humans. Curiously enough, Asian healing mushrooms are one area of research. Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma spp) types are excellent for that. They compete with the fungus and regenerate the liver cells which are otherwise damaged by aflatoxin, one of the metabolic products of candida and aspergillus, as well as by common aggressive antifungals.

Not Lufenuron though, that stuff is driven out by the intestinal system so it's safe to take even in serious cases, but it may not be enough. Large doses of Vitamin C help but not by themselves.

Not every type of probiotic works in extreme cases, for me the Japanese brand Pearls was the best so far.

I tried home-fermenting some Asian drinks (tea mushroom), and they also helped though they gave me a cleaning too. My idea is that if you have had such a disease, it is worth to replenish minerals, trace elements, selenium especially, but even potash and some cases iodine (oral fungus infections can be treated externally by iodine unless you have hyperthyroid problems or allergic to iodine), as the fungus draws these metals out of your body, and as a result, cramps may happen.

Some case histories suggest that fungi can get to the brain, and it is hard to get them out due to the blood-brain barrier. Lufenuron seems to wokr with that too, but serious cases have to repeat it every once in a while.

Last, I tried electric treatment through the body (Rife methods) and it worked to some extent to decrease candida even in audible frequencies, this you can cheaply try at home with a tone generator software and speaker chords of the old type.

An ad on the top of Rense says Is cancer a fungus? Well, this may be going too far, but there ar studies that show that cancer indeed sometimes goes together with candida as does AIDS. So it could be a step in the right direction.

But fungi have changed all around the world in recent decades, this I feel intuitively, probably partly due to the changed environment of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, as well as the raised level of radioactivity. Also, I simply saw too many houseplants and fruits break out with fungi - a cactus in my former house (where I suspect there was an Aspergillus infection in the adobe walls) I was pateiently grafting for 25 years suddenly gave up the ghost. Then another one, then another one. All the plants I brought from that old house died one by one, no matter how diligently I cut them back and changed their soil. This stufff was aggressive. And if it weren't for my Lufenuron cures last year, I would probably not be here writing these lines but in the cemetery happily eaten by the fungus.

My 2 cents.

a reply to: loam

White nose syndrome has been bad for several years now. Lots of caves closed until they can figure his out. Mammoth cave I think is still open and they don't know if letting people in will affect anything, they are just being cautious.

a reply to: loam

Bacteria or virus prob more likely for humans because we recognize and defend and can change the conditions of our habitat, BUT i do recall a human killing fungal infection in oregon.

I've heard that fungus is the largest living organism, period. This is according to Paul Stamets (who has dedicated to his life to understanding mushrooms and fungus). His website is: www.fungi.com. He says it can be very beneficial to our environment, like cleaning up the toxins people dump on our earth, and eating away other invasive organisms. I guess it's when It's out of balance that it becomes a problem. I myself am trying to eat gluten free and as low sugar as possible, because fungus and yeast love sugar and simple carbs.

I keep my immune system strong and drink alkaline water when I can. I also juice and visit the sauna regularly as it helps you detox and get rid of excesses in the body. Again it's about keeping strong Natural Immunity and balance in life.

a reply to: loam

Climate change, climate change, climate change! errr climate climate, mohammed jihad, climate climate... Change change climate..

Did you know, Hitler was a bad man... It is rumoured the climate had a slight swing when he was born and so that was the cause of his evilness, so you see how climate change is responsible... Just incase I wasn't clear... climate climate climate... change, DEATH climate change change change climate...

Reminds me of Natural born killers...

"LIVE WITH WAYNE GAYLE Just keep repeating it roger! You think any of those morons out there in zombie land actually remember anything!?... LIVE.... "

I'm paraphrasing... But think you'll get the point...

EDIT: Anyone notice if any actual scientists in that clip mention climate change, seemed to me the narator was the only one repeating it over and over...

The female scientist said it was a mystery how it got there, but the narator knows... Climate change! XD

I mean for god sake! Have we forgotten evolution? Have we forgotten that life adapts to its environment? They even said this was a different species and likely has additional dna... Hmmm couldn't be the dna allowed it to live in colder climates... Nah... Climate change fo shiz...

Also they said it likely arrived decades ago, soooo maybe in that time it bleedin adapted...

Climate climate climate....

originally posted by: _damon

the earth might be creating new diseases and microorganisms that would drive mankind to extinction or severerly reduce it. As well as cataclysms. Take it the same way as a diseased body who reacts to pathogens and intruders by finding ways to eradicate them, without consideration of their own existences or perspectives (they got one, to be sure), the goal being solely to protect itself and heal. As above, so below.

Its only hypothetic of course but the odds are high.

Could be true like some of the recent outbreaks like ebola has been largely unprecedented and people are still clueless how it is spreading.


But I don't think it will immediately lead to human extinction. A few people will always be spared. Diseases don't kill everyone. there will always be a few people who are naturally immune to diseases.

Well it looks like yesterday some scientists agreed that things are really looking bad...

This thread explains some of the how, but the next one explains the possible what.

Biologist warn of early stages of Earth's sixth mass extinction event

Awesome thread!

As a recreational cultivator of gourmet and medicinal fungi to include brewing yeasts... I personally think that the saving grace to a possible fungapocalypse would be in prevention through propagation of beneficial strains. Fungi are competitive by nature whether parasitic or saprophytic and once a certain variety takes a foot hold, albeit in the gut or in a prepared bed of wood chips or straw or wort, it will do whatever it can to prevent another species from taking hold.

a reply to: loam

Here's more. ...I suspect any association between fungal prions and human disease likely has to do with the actin cytoskeleton and some prion's ability to access same cross-kingdom - but don't have time to pursue properly right now. However, evidence does show that the Human Laminin Receptor (LamR) with Sup35 (the Prion-Forming Protein from yeast S. cerevisiae) - linked to amyloid formation. ....Maybe file under "How things work."

Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2012;107:417-56. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-385883-2.00007-2.
Fungal prions.
Staniforth GL1, Tuite MF.
Author information
Abstract
For both mammalian and fungal prion proteins, conformational templating drives the phenomenon of protein-only infectivity. The conformational conversion of a protein to its transmissible prion state is associated with changes to host cellular physiology. In mammals, this change is synonymous with disease, whereas in fungi no notable detrimental effect on the host is typically observed. Instead, fungal prions can serve as epigenetic regulators of inheritance in the form of partial loss-of-function phenotypes. In the presence of environmental challenges, the prion state [PRION(+)], with its resource for phenotypic plasticity, can be associated with a growth advantage. The growing number of yeast proteins that can switch to a heritable [PRION(+)] form represents diverse and metabolically penetrating cellular functions, suggesting that the [PRION(+)] state in yeast is a functional one, albeit rarely found in nature. In this chapter, we introduce the biochemical and genetic properties of fungal prions, many of which are shared by the mammalian prion protein PrP, and then outline the major contributions that studies on fungal prions have made to prion biology.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PMID: 22482457

Interaction of Human Laminin Receptor with Sup35, the [PSI+] Prion-Forming Protein from S. cerevisiae: A Yeast Model for Studies of LamR Interactions with Amyloidogenic Proteins

The laminin receptor (LamR) is a cell surface receptor for extracellular matrix laminin, whereas the same protein within the cell interacts with ribosomes, nuclear proteins and cytoskeletal fibers. LamR has been shown to be a receptor for several bacteria and viruses. Furthermore, LamR interacts with both cellular and infectious forms of the prion protein, PrPC and PrPSc. ...

...Sup35, a yeast prion-forming protein that has been extensively studied, is a translational termination factor (eRF3) in its soluble form [34], [35]. However, when aggregated as a prion [36], [37], [PSI+], Sup35 is unavailable to terminate protein synthesis. Under this condition, protein termination is suppressed as ribosomes occasionally read through stop codons. ...

...Evidence ....reveal an interaction between LamR and Sup35 in [PSI+] cells, indicating that LamR interacts with Sup35-based prion protein.