The spread of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the most serious health crisis of our time and has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. In many American cities and other areas of the world it is the leading cause of death for 25 to 45 year-olds. Because of widespread AIDS research, the scientific community has learned more about viruses and the immune system in the last few years than in the previous ninety.
HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV)
AIDS is linked to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),which is particularly destructive to the victim's T-cell lymphocytes - a type of white blood cell necessary for effective immune response. There are three types - killer T -cells, helper T-cells and suppressor T-cells. Helper cells - which signal the presence of antigens so the body can effectively counter them - are destroyed by HIV, preempting the build-up of killer cells that ordinarily combat viruses. The result is immune-deficiency. The AIDS virus does not kill directly, butleaves the victim defenseless against even the most innocuous disease organisms.
Long-term prospects for AIDS sufferers are slowly improving, and much can be done in the short-term. With good care the worst symptoms can be avoided for years and the patient can lead a productive life. As more is known about the disease and its spread, more effective treatments will emerge. There is widespread hope for a cure within the next decade.
Many pharmacological and naturopathic medications are promoted as possible AIDS therapies, both for treatment and prevention. These have varying levels of success but at a cost - many pharmacological drugs are toxic, and while they help in their own ways to fight the disease, they exact a heavy toll in other ways, both physical and financial. There are certainly no miracle cures. Some therapies help, some are hazardous. Nevertheless, a combination of treatments is more effective than anyone alone, so most AIDS patients adopt one of several regimens known as drug cocktails.
The worst aspects of the disease are secondary to HIV itself. Because the immune system has been compromised, it cannot respond adequately to most sorts of infection. These infections, not the HIV, cause disease.
Normal immune response (left) and AIDS immune response (right)
THE ROLE OF GLUTATHIONE (GSH) IN AIDS
Much attention is therefore paid to the role of glutathione in AIDS patients. Among other things, the disease causes chronic inflammatory change and oxidative stress. These activities consume glutathione and lead to dysfunction in CD4 helper cells. Once T-cells lose their efficiency, the patient becomes susceptible to opportunistic infections, such as certain types of pneumonia, diarrhea, candida and unusual cancers - diseases to which healthy individuals are immune. The immuno-deficiency becomes generalized and leads to malnutrition, wasting and death.
Researchers led by M. Roederer have discovered that, among other biochemical changes, AIDS patients experience unusually low glutathione concentrations. Some have reported that glutathione levels in the blood fall to about 30% of normal.
They suggest that this deficiency contributes to the typical feature of HIV infection - progressive weakening of the immune system. Others assign glutathione a proactive role, saying that the inflammatory cytokines that make H I V growth possible are inhibited by elevated glutathione concentrations. They demonstrated this effect by raising glutathione levels with drugs like NAC (Nvaceryl-cysreine). The same team in 1991 showed how the loss of CD4 and CDs T-cell glutathione corresponds to the progression of the disease.
In 1992, a team led by Dr. Gustavo Bounous investigated the properties of milk protein isolates at McGill University, Montreal. They developed a method of extraction that preserved the glutathione-enhancing properties of the protein. This specially prepared bioactive protein was later patented and named Immunocal. Dr. Bounous and his colleagues knew that heightened glutathione levels seemed to enhance the human immune system. Learning of the correlation between HIV progression and low glutathione levels, they studied its effects on AIDS patients. Their milk-protein isolate was given as a dietary supplement. The results were that it often diminished and sometimes reversed the wasting effects of AIDS. These patients also exhibited elevated CD4 T-cell counts and decreased viral load.
The natural availability of glutathione precursors was welcome news to the AIDS research community. Imrnunocal was presented at the Canadian Conference on HIV I AIDS Research in 1994 by Baruchel, Olivier and Mark Wainberg, the incumbent chairman of the International AIDS Research Association. Dr. Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, drew attention to the promising effects of Immunocal in his opening address at the Tenth International AIDS conference in Japan in 1994.
Baruchel, Bounous and Gold's research with Immunocal was significant enough to receive funding from the Canadian HIV Trials Network, and a large multi-center study is in progress. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta reported on their AIDS web page in February 1997:
" •.. laboratory studies have shown that a new whey protein concentrate, called Im-
munocal, can inhibit HIV replication while also stimulating the production of glutathione,
an amino acid that helps control the virus."
In a landmark 1997 paper Herzenberg and Herzenberg clearly stated that glutathione deficiency is associated with decreased survival in HIV disease. They improved survival rates by administering N AC (a glutathione -promoting drug). Given the growing body of evidence demonstrating the benefits of raising glutathione levels in AIDS patients, this represents a welcome addition to complementary therapy.
Case Study
The first member of this family of three to be diagnosed with AIDS was the father Bob, who developed pneumonia at age fortyjour. His wife Joan who developed swollen glands (lymphadenopathy), tested positive shortly afterwards. Subsequently they discovered that their two-year old son Justin was also HIV-positive, although he was asymptomatic. Both Bob and Joan became progressively unwell and Bob quit his job due to fatigue. Both were started on the antiviral drug AZT, but both discontinued this therapy because of intolerable side-greets. Because of her vomiting and profound headaches on the drug, Joan decided not to allow her son to receive this therapy. Bob, Joan and Justin were started on Immunocal. Both husband and wife noticed significant increase in their energy levels within weeks, Monitoring the families' blood tests over the next nine months, improvements in viral load, lymphocyte (white blood cell) count and specific CD4 lymphocyte values were apparent. Bob returned to work, Justin remained symptomjree and Joan wanted another child but was convinced not to pursue this idea.
CONCLUSION
AIDS attacks the immune system and is characterized by decreased glutathione levels and a general lack of resistance to pathogens. In fact, glutathione deficiency is associated with decreased survival in HIV disease. Scientific studies have shown that supplementation aimed at maintaining glutathione levels can diminish and sometimes reverse the wasting effect of AIDS. The patients studied in these experiments often also exhibit elevated CD-4 lymphocyte cell counts and decreased viral loads. As a result of these and many other AIDS trials, larger studies should establish glutathione supplementation as a mainstay of complementary therapy.
REFERENCES
BARUCHEL 5, BOUNOUS G, GOLD P Place for an antioxidant therapy in HlV infection. Oxidative Stress, Cell Activation and Viral Infection
C Pasquier ed 1994
BARUCHEL 5, VIAU G, OLIVIER R, BOUNOUS G Nutriceutical modulation of glutathione with a humanized native milk serum protein isolate, lmmunocal. Application in AIDS and cancer in: Oxidative Stress in Cancer, AIDS and Neurode- generative Diseases. Institute Pasteur Editors Montagnier L, Olivier R, Pasquier C Marcel Dekker, 1998
BARUCHEL 5, WAINBERG MA The role of ox idative stress in disease progression in individuals infected by HlV. Journal of Leukocyte Biology
52:I11-I14, 1992
BOUNous G, BARUCHEL $, FALUTZ], GOLD P Whey proteins as a food supplement in HlV- seropositive individuals. Clinical Investigative
Medicine 16(3):204-209, 1993
BUHL R,]AFFE HA, HOLROYD K] ET AL Systemic GSH deficiency in symptomjree HlV sero- positive individuals. Lancet ii:l294-I298, 1989
HARMSEN MC, 5WART P], DE BETHUNE MP, PAUWELSR, DE CLERCQ E, THE TH, MEIJER DKF Antiviral effects of plasma and milk proteins: Lactoferrin shows potent activity against both human immunodeficiency virus and human cytomegalovirus replication in vitro. The Journal of Infectious Diseases 172:380-388,1995
HERZENBERG LA, DE ROSA 5C, DUBS JG, ROEDERER M, ANDERSON MT, ELA SW, DERESINSK1 5C, HERZENBERG LA Glutathione deficiency is associated with impaired survival in HlV disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 94:1967-1972, 1997
KALEBIC T, KINTER A, POLl G, ANDERSON ME, MEISTER A, FAUCI A Suppression ofhuman immunodeficiency virus expression in chronically infected monocytic cells by GSH, GSH ester, and N -acetylcysteine. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 88:986-990, 1991
KAMEOKA M, OKADA y, TOBIUME M, KI M U RA T, I K U TA K Intracellular glutathione as a possible direct blocker of HlV Type 1 reverse
transcription. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 12(17):1635-1638, 1996
PALAMARA AT, PERNO CF, AQuARO S, BUE MC, DINI L, GARACI E Glutathione inhibits HIV replication by acting at late stages of the
virus life cycle. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 12(16):1537-1541, 1996
ROEDERER M, STAAL FJT, OSADA H, HERZENBERG LA, HERZENBERG LA CD4 and CD8 T cells with high intracellular glu- tathione levels are selectively lost as the HIV infection progresses. International Immunology 3(9 ):993-937, 1991
ROEDERER M, STAAL FJ, RAJu PA, ELA SW, HERZENBERG LA, HERZENBERG LA Cytokine-stimulated human immunodeficiency virus replication is inhibited by N-acetyl-L-cysteine. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 87:4884-4888, 1990
STAAL FJT, ELA SW, ROEDERER M, ANDERSON MT, HERZENBERG LA, HERZENBERG LA Glutathione deficiency & human immunodeficiency virus infection Lancet 339:909-912, 1992.
VALLIS KA Glutathione deficiency & radiosensitivity in AIDS patients Lancet 337:918-919, 1991
Immunocal and Immunocal Platinum are the ONLY Dietary supplements, patented and scientifically PROVEN to consistently raise glutathione levels and enhance the human immune system!
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