TITLE:
Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) corrects chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) acquired following exposure to water-damaged buildings
AUTHORS:
Ritchie C. Shoemaker, Dennis House, James C. Ryan
KEYWORDS:
Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP); Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS); TGF Beta-1; C4a; MSH; T Regulatory Cells; Water-Damaged Buildings
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.3,
March
7,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Exposure in
water-damaged buildings (WDB) to airborne bioaerosols including metabolic products
of toxigenic fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes; and inflammagens, can lead to
a persistent innate immune inflammatory illness. This illness, termed a chronic
inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS-WDB), is systemic with symptoms acquired
from multiple organ systems. Treatment of CIRS-WDB has progressed rapidly as a
better understanding of the inflammatory pathophysiology has led to targeted, sequential
therapies. The fundamental basis of uncontrolled innate immune responses, the
humoral deficiency of regulatory neuropeptides melanocyte stimulating hormone
(MSH) or vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), seen in over 98% of pa tients,
has not consistently responded to any treatment modality. Use of replacement
VIP has been attempted anecdotally; VIP replacement therapies show promise in
short term studies but longer therapies have not been attempted. Here we report
an open label trial of 20 patients with refractory CIRS-WDB illness who took replacement VIP in a nasal spray for at least 18 months with confirmation of
durable efficacy and absence of significant side effects. These 20 patients
were similar in symptoms and lab find- ings to three previously published
cohorts in- volving 1829 patients and 169 controls. Dosage of VIP was titrated
downwards from four to zero doses a day to determine minimum effective dose,
and retitrated upwards for maximum improvement over time. The trial showed
that VIP therapy safely 1) reduced refractory symptoms to equal controls; 2)
corrected inflammatory parameters C4a, TGF beta-1, VEGF, MMP9; 3) corrected
estradiol, testosterone and 25-OH Vitamin D; 4) returned pulmonary artery
systolic pressure (PASP) during exercise to normal; and 5) enhanced quality of
life in 100% of trial patients. Subsequent identification of correction of
T-regulatory cell levels supports the potential role of VIP in both innate and
adaptive immune function.