Cytokine Storm

What is a Cytokine Storm?
http://ezinearticles.com/?Bird-Flu-(Avian-Influenza)-Pandemic,-the-Cytokine-Storm:-What-Drugs-Work-and-Dont-Work&id=207162

From: Bird Flu (Avian Influenza) Pandemic, the Cytokine Storm: What Drugs Work and Don't Work
by Steven P. Petrosino, Ph.D. and Angela L. Petrosino, MPH
Steven Petrosino, Ph.D. - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
(Dr. Petrosino received his Baccalaureate degree from Penn State University in 1975, pursued his Masters degree with honors at Penn State in 1978, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Doctorate in Nutrition from Lasalle University (Mandeville) in 1995.)

What is a Cytokine Storm?

A cytokine storm, also called "systemic inflammatory response syndrome" (SIRS) is the systemic expression of a healthy and vigorous immune system resulting in the release of more than 150 inflammatory mediators (cytokines, oxygen free radicals, and coagulation factors). Both pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha, InterLeukin-1, and InterLeukin-6) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (such as interleukin 10, and interleukin 1 receptor antagonist) are elevated in the serum, and the fierce and often lethal interplay of these cytokines is referred to as a "Cytokine Storm". The primary contributors to the cytokine storm are TNF-a (Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha) and IL-6 (Interleukin-6). The cytokine storm is an inappropriate (greatly exaggerated) immune response that is caused by rapidly proliferating and highly activated T-cells or natural killer (NK) cells. These cells are themselves activated by infected macrophages. The cytokine storm must be treated and suppressed or lethality can result.

Acute respiratory viral infection results in a cytokine storm effecting the lungs, and subsequent damage to alveoli and lung tissue results in the lethality seen in more severe flu viral infections, especially those fatalities among young healthy adults.

In the absence of prompt medical intervention to stop the "cytokine storm", the lung will suffer permanent damage. Many of these patients will develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), i.e. will present with pulmonary edema that is not caused by volume overload, or a depressed left ventricular function. Deaths will usually result from multisystem organ failure, and not from lung failure. ---CONTINUED---

Swine Flu and the Cytokine Storm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Swine-Flu-and-the-Cytokine-Storm&id=3163281

Cytokine Storm. Google it. The Cytokine Storm was the great killer of the Spanish flu of 1918 during the second wave which started in October of that year. In a nutshell, a Cytokine Storm is when the body's immune system basically attacks and kills itself. Yes, the Spanish flu virus was the trigger for the many fatalities of 1918, but the virus itself was not the actual bullet that killed. The actual killer, the killer bullet, of many young healthy adults back in 1918, ironically, was their own immune system. The Spanish flu virus was so foreign and so unknown that it caused the immune system to go into a chaotic overdrive. Speaking metaphorically, the immune system launched a full scale 'nuclear war' on the body when it detected the Spanish flu virus but basically ended up nuking itself... and we all know there are no winners in a nuclear war.    ---CONTINUED---

Cytokine Storm
https://sites.google.com/site/naturalimmunesystemboosters/cytokine-storm

What Is A Cytokine Storm?

Cytokines are compounds produced by the body’s immune system that attack and remove foreign bodies. Cytokines, produced by a number of different types of cells in response to infection that act as signals to other cells in the body, telling them to divide, or to produce certain proteins, or to cease their production. They assist, basically, in orchestrating portions of the immune response.
Simply put, a "cytokine storm" occurs when this regulation goes on overdrive and the molecules which are supposed to be protecting the body end up causing it harm by responding too strongly to the infection. ---CONTINUED---