Category Archives: Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy, News, Preventative

World Renowned Chiropractor, Dr. Jim Sigafoose, Joins inLife LLC to Promote Their New Immune Boosting Product inForce Immune Builder to the Chiropractic Community

Irvine, California (Oct 04, 2010) inLife LLC distributors of science-based Health & Wellness products today announced that Dr. Jim Sigafoose is joining inLife LLC to promote the immunological benefits of their new product, inForce. Dr. Sigafoose has become a great believer of inForce’s main ingredient Coriolus versicolor after studying all the scientific data and seeing firsthand those whose lives have already benefitted.

Dr James M. Sigafoose is recognized worldwide for his inspirational Chiropractic philosophy and motivational teaching. A Featured Speaker at Dynamic Essentials (DE) for over 45 years and a Team Speaker at Parker Seminars for the past 15 years, Dr. Sigafoose is considered one of the top speakers in the Chiropractic profession and a recognized leader in the world of natural healing. Dr Sigafoose has spoken internationally in countries including: Japan, Australia and Spain. He has been honored as Chiropractor of the Year numerous times by various Chiropractic colleges and organizations.

About Coriolus Versicolor

The Coriolus Versicolor mushroom is one of the most widely studied supplements for its immune building properties. Worldwide, there have been over 400 animal and human studies on Coriolus versicolor with over a dozen placebo-based human trials conducted in the west. Traditionally, the Coriolus versicolor mushroom (known as Yun-zhi or cloud mushroom in China) has been used in China for several thousand years because of its immune boosting capabilities. In the 1980s, Dr. Yang conducted further studies and was able to isolate a much more potent strain using a different, alcohol-based extraction process. The result was Polysaccharopeptide or PSP. In the United States, top-ranked hospital and research institutes have reported that Coriolus versicolor helps boost the body’s immune systems with limited side effects and safety of daily oral doses for extended periods of time. In addition, Coriolus versicolor and its potential positive effects has been studied very closely by M.D. Anderson, University of Texas, Loma Linda University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School) , The University of San Diego, Sloan-Kettering Center (New York), and Bastyr University (Kenmore, Washington) just to name a few.

inLife Immune Builder with PSP and PSK

inLife offers Coriolus versicolor as a Daily Dietary Supplement in capsule form to help maintain and stimulate the body’s immune system. Coriolus versicolor and its high-potency extracts, PSK and PSP are among the most widely studied supplements for their immune building properties. One would be hard-pressed to find another immune boosting product that has had more research completed or positive comments associated with it. The amount of worldwide comments and studies is compelling. InForce Immune Builder is a proprietary blend of both Polysaccharide-K (PSK) and Polysaccharopeptide (PSP). Both offer much needed immune building assistance and they can be taken on a daily basis. The products are bottled in the United States in an FDA registered bottling facility that is CGMP compliant (Current Good Manufacturing Practices).

About inLife LLC

Founded in 2007, inLife has been very successful in bringing to market products that have efficacies that are soundly based on scientific research. inLife products are now available in the U.S. as well as the U.K, Canada and Spain. For more information on inForce Immune Builder and the company, please review www.myinlife.com. For further details on inForce, journalists may contact Thomas Kiklas directly at 949-648-2525.

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Founded in 2007, inLife has been very successful in bringing to market products that have efficacies that are soundly based on scientific research. For further details on inForce, journalists may contact Thomas Kiklas directly at 949-648-2525.

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Breast Cancer, Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials, Immunotherapy, in vitro, Leukemia, Lung Cancer, Lymphoma, Medical Studies, PSP

Differential effect of Coriolus versicolor (Yunzhi) extract on cytokine production by murine lymphocytes in vitro

C.Y. Hoa, Clara B.S. Laua, C.F. Kima, K.N. Leungb, K.P. Fungb, T.F. Tsec, Helen H.L. Chanc, Moses S.S. Chowa

Being one of the commonly used Chinese medicinal herbs, Coriolus versicolor (CV), also named as Yunzhi, was known to possess both anti-tumor and immunopotentiating activities. The present study aimed to investigate the in vitro immunomodulatory effect of a standardized ethanol–water extract prepared from CV on the proliferation of murine splenic lymphocytes using the MTT assay, and the production of six T helper (Th)-related cytokines using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. The results showed that the CV extract significantly augmented the proliferation of murine splenic lymphocytes in a time- and dose-dependent manner, maximally by 2.4-fold. Moreover, the production of two Th1-related cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-2 and IL-12, in culture supernatants from the CV extract-activated lymphocytes was prominently upregulated at 48 and 72 h. Positive correlations were found between the levels of these two cytokines and the MTT-based proliferative response. In contrast, the production of two other Th1-related cytokines, including interferon (IFN)-g and IL-18, was significantly augmented only at 24 h, but not at 48 and 72 h. On the other hand, the levels of two Th2-related cytokines such as IL-4 and IL-6 were undetectable in the culture supernatants of lymphocytes treated with the CVextract. The CVextract was suggested to be a lymphocyte mitogen by differentially enhancing the production of Th1-related cytokines.

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Immunotherapy, Medical Studies

Coriolus versicolor: a medicinal mushroom with promising immunotherapeutic values.

KK Chu, SS Ho, AH Chow.

Coriolus versicolor (CV) is a medicinal mushroom widely prescribed for the prophylaxis and treatment of cancer and infection in China. In recent years, it has been extensively demonstrated both preclinically and clinically that aqueous extracts obtained from CV display a wide array of biological activities, including stimulatory effects on different immune cells and inhibition of cancer growth. The growing popularity of aqueous CV extracts as an adjunct medical modality to conventional cancer therapies has generated substantial commercial interest in developing these extracts into consistent and efficacious oral proprietary products. While very limited information is available on the physical, chemical, and pharmacodynamic properties of the active principles present in these extracts, there has been sufficient scientific evidence to support the feasibility of developing at least some of these constituents into an evidence-based immunodulatory agent. In this article, the background, traditional usage, pharmacological activities, clinical effects, adverse reactions, active constituents, and regulatory aspects of CV are reviewed. Presented also in this review are the current uses and administration, potential drug interactions, and contraindication of aqueous extracts prepared from CV.

Cancer, Chemotherapy, Gastric Cancer, Immunotherapy, PSK

Clinical results of a randomized controlled trial on the effect of adjuvant immunochemotherapy using Esquinon and Krestin in patients with curatively resected gastric cancer–7-year survival– Cooperative Study Group for Cancer Immunochemotherapy, Tokai Gastrointestinal Oncology Group

Ichihashi H, Kondo T, Nakazato H.

A randomized controlled study was carried out on curatively resected gastric cancer patients in a cooperative study involving 16 institutions in order to evaluate the effect of an alternative long-term adjuvant immunochemotherapy using Esquinon (CQ) and Krestin (PSK). One week after surgery, CQ was given at a dose of 2mg/m2 once a week for 3 weeks and this was repeated every 6 weeks. CQ was administered intravenously in the 1st course and thereafter orally up to 9 courses. Three postoperative week, immunotherapy was then started in which PSK was given orally in 3 divided doses of
2g/m2/day from the day when CQ therapy ended for 4 consecutive weeks, and this performed for every course. Estimated survival rate and cumulative survival curves were compared utilizing the data up to 7 years after surgery in the chemotherapy group given CQ alone and in the immunochemotherapy group given CQ + PSK. The survival curve in all cases showed a favorable form in the CQ + PSK group for up to 36 months, and thereafter it crossed with that of the CQ group for up to 68 months. Both curves twisted at 68 months and then deviated from each other, showing that the effect in the CQ + PSK group beneficial. The curve showed a twisting configuration throughout the treatment period. There was no statistically significant difference between the survival curves of the two groups. Retrospective survival analysis was then performed on separate subgroups classified into the category of S1, S2, N1, and N2. The CQ + PSK group was better than the CQ alone group in its survival rate for the S1 + S2 (N1-2) group, the percentage being 11.5%, and a statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups (p = 0.089).

Cancer, Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials, Gastric Cancer, Immunotherapy, Medical Studies, PSK

Clinical Potential of Biological Response Modifiers Combined with Chemotherapy for Gastric Cancer

Masahiko Shibata Takeshi Nezu Shigeru Fujisaki Katsuyuki Andou
Ryouichi Tomita Masahiro Fukuzawa

The most effective treatment for gastric cancer is complete surgical resection with lymphadenectomy. However, a number of patients experience recurrence of the cancer even after curative surgery. This review focuses on comparative trials studying the use of adjuvant therapy with chemotherapy plus immunotherapy in the treatment of patients with curatively resected gastric cancer. Preoperative and intraperitoneal therapy, and therapy for advanced or recurrent gastric cancer are also discussed. At present, some subset analyses of adjuvant trials have shown favorable results suggesting that the biological response modifiers (BRMs), PSK or OK-432, add a benefit to chemotherapy. For advanced gastric cancer, although gastric cancer cells are generally not very sensitive to most of the currently available chemotherapeutic agents, it has been reported that biochemical modulation with treatments including low-dose cisplatin + 5-FU (fluorouracil) have high response rates and exert an immunomodulatory effect especially when used in combination with BRMs. The impact of splenectomy and some of the
promising newly developed drugs are discussed.

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Cancer, Chemotherapy, Esophageal Cancer, Immunotherapy, in vitro, Medical Studies, PSK, PSP

Clinical Implications of PSP in Oncology

T.F. Liu and W.C. Xue

Up to now, the three main weapons against cancer have been surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Although these classical methods of treatment have given fairly good results in general, the results have yet to be improved, especially in late cases. Thus for many years, the search for a more effective means of anti-cancer treatment has been going on world-wide. An ideal drug would of course be one that could directly kill all the cancer cells without harming the normal tissues, and also without causing general toxicity. However, at present a more practical approach is to use drugs that would either enhance the biological effects of radiation or of cytotoxic agents, or strengthen the organism’s immunological defenses. In recent years, several such drugs have been undergoing clinical trials, for example, Misonidazole, RS 2508, OK-432, PSK, etc.

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Clinical Trials, Esophageal Cancer, Immunotherapy, in vitro, Medical Studies, PSK, PSP

Clinical Experience in the Use of PSP

W.C. Xue and T.F. Liu

There is no really effective treatment for moderate and advanced stages of esophageal carcinoma. Although surgery for the earlier cases has been able to give a 5 years survival rate of 28.7%, such operable cases are relatively few. By far the greater majority are already in stage III to IV when first seen in the clinic, and radiotherapy alone in these cases has given a 5 years survival rate of only 8-14%. In order to improve treatment results, a variety of chemotherapeutic agents have been used in combination surgery, but so far no really effective drug has been found.
The drug PSP (polysaccharide-peptide of Coriolus versicolor) has been discovered and produced by Professor Qing-yao Yang of. It is a new anti-cancer and immuno-regulatory drug, similar to PSK (Krestin) but the effective component has been found to be larger than PSK. Experimental data has proved these properties of PSP, and in vitro as well as in vivo studies have all proved that PSP is superior to PSK. Of course, as is the case with all new drugs, the ultimate proof of its value will have to be shown by clinical application.
Data on Krestin suggest that this family of drugs when used in combination with radiotherapy, there might be an increase of the biological effects of radiation. To do a pilot study on such a possibility, the authors have treated 41 moderate to advanced cases of esophageal carcinoma with a combination of PSP and radiotherapy.

Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy, Leukemia, Medical Studies

Chemoimmunotherapy with Krestin in acute leukemia

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The purpose of this study was to determine if immunotherapy with Krestin can prolong the durations of complete remission and survival. The patients were placed at random in the chemotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy groups. The median durations of complete remission and survival were longer in the chemoimmunotherapy group than in the chemotherapy group. The complete remission rate of the second induction was higher in the chemoimmunotherapy group than in the chemotherapy group. The cell-mediated immunity was somewhat enhanced in the chemoimmunotherapy group, while it was not enhanced in the chemotherapy group. These results suggested that Krestin administration for maintenance therapy was useful for prolongation of the durations of remission and survival time in patients with acute leukemia.

Autoimmune Disease, Clinical Trials, Immunotherapy, Medical Studies, Prostate Cancer, PSK, Tumor

Antitumor effects of residual tumor after cryoablation: the combined effect of residual tumor and a protein-bound polysaccharide on multiple liver metastases in a murine model

Masato Urano, Chihiro Tanaka, Yasuyuki Sugiyama, Kiichi Miya, and Shigetoyo Saji*

Cryoablation is a low-invasive surgical treatment for malignant tumors. It may induce an immunological response leading to the eradication of distant metastases or alternatively it might promote the growth of residual tumors. In this paper we confirm the occurrence of both phenomena and we describe the preventive effect of a protein-bound polysaccharide preparation. Metastatic liver tumors were produced in BALB/c mice by the intrasplenic inoculation of colon 26 cells and cryoablation was carried out usingliquid nitrogen ()170C) applied by a contact method. The value of combiningcryoablation with administration of the polysaccharide preparation in the prevention of growth of residual tumors was investigated. It was shown that the number of metastatic liver nodules and the size of the primary tumor at the site of inoculation in the spleen were significantly lower when the volume that was frozen was small. The production by splenocytes of the tumor necrosis factor TNF-a, interferon INF-c, and the interleukins IL-4 and IL-10 increased significantly after freezing and thawing of the tumor tissue. The polysaccharide treatment significantly reduced the production of IL-4 and IL-10 followingcryoablation; the production of TNF-a and INF-c was slightly promoted; the natural killer and cytotoxic T-cell activities of splenocytes were slightly enhanced. It was concluded that the polysaccharide preparation was beneficial by suppressing IL-4 and IL-10 production and might inhibit the growth of residual tumor that is sometimes induced by large-volume cryoablation.

Hepatoma, Immunotherapy, in vitro, Medical Studies, PSP, Tumor

Antitumor effects of a refined polysaccharide peptide fraction isolated from Coriolus versicolor: in vitro and in vivo studies.

Dong Y, Kwan CY, Chen ZN, Yang MM.

RPSP, a refined polysaccharide peptide fraction isolated by fast performance liquid chromatography (FPLC) from the crude powder of total peptide-bound polysaccharides of cultivated Coriolus versicolor Cov-1 dose-dependently inhibited the proliferation of a human hepatoma cell line (HEPG2). The effective dose causing 50% inhibition following 3-day exposure to RPSP was 243 +/- 36 micrograms/ml for HEPG2. However, little or no inhibitory effects were detected in normal human foetal hepatocytes. On the other hand, in the pretreatment group, in which RPSP was administered i.p. for two weeks before sarcoma 180 inoculation in nude mice, the incidence of tumor growth was less (2 out of 5 mice) than that of the control group (all 5 mice). The tumor size of the control group was about 3-5 times bigger than that of the pretreatment group. In tumor bearing nude mice, 5 days after sarcoma 180 inoculation, i.v. administration of RPSP significantly suppressed the growth of tumor mass. The inhibition rate was 93.6% on day 13. Furthermore, administration of RPSP did not cause any pathological lesions in vital organs of rabbits such as heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney. In conclusion, these results indicate that RPSP acts by directly suppressing tumor cell growth in vitro and the prevention of in vivo growth of tumor mass is probably mediated also via its immunomodulating effects.