This is a very interesting study using beta-glucan to make an anti-fungal
vaccine. Beta-glucan supplements have been used for many years in
alternative medicine to help the immune system fight candida and other
pathogens.
http://www.vitaminexpress.com/news/beta1-3.htm
A new nutritional product called beta-1,3-glucan is one of the most exciting
things happening today in the field of nutritional supplements.
Obtained from purified yeast, beta-1,3-glucan has a long scientific history
and a reference list including literally hundreds of papers. Research
originated in the 1940's when Pillemer and his colleagues described a crude
yeast cell wall preparation, Zymosan. They reported that this material was
able to stimulate nonspecific immunity1. It was unknown at that time which
element of this composition, containing a relatively crude mixture of
proteins, lipids and polysaccharides, actually activated the immune
response.
The answer came later in the 60's, when Dr. Nicholas DiLuzio at Tulane
University experimented with beta-1,3-glucan2 . In the late 1980's Dr. Joyce
Czop, at Harvard University, described the mode of action of this material
in stimulating the immune system: there is a specific receptor for
beta-1,3-glucan on the surface of certain cells, called macrophages3 that
when activated, stimulate a cascade of events turning the body into "an
arsenal of defense".
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=30248#
Scientists develop fungus-fighting vaccine
07 Sep 2005
A group of scientists in Italy have developed a vaccine with the potential
to protect against fungal pathogens that commonly infect humans, according
to a study by Torosantucci and colleagues in the September 5 issue of The
Journal of Experimental Medicine. Although these fungi pose little threat to
people with healthy immune systems, they can cause fatal infections in those
whose immune systems have been weakened by cancer treatments or
post-transplant immunosuppressive therapies. No anti-fungal vaccines are
currently available.
The new vaccine was made of a sugar-like molecule called beta-glucan that is
found on the cell wall of the fungus and that the fungus needs to grow and
survive. To induce a robust immune response to the vaccine, the group
attached the relatively innocuous beta-glucan to a protein called diptheria
toxin that is known to stimulate the immune system and has been used in
other human vaccines.
The vaccine protected rodents from fatal fungal infections by triggering the
production of anti-beta-glucan antibodies. These antibodies stuck to the
invading fungal cell wall and prevented the fungus from growing. The authors
now plan to test the vaccine in humans and hope the results are equally
promising.
Nickey Henry
[email hidden]
212-327-8366
Journal of Experimental Medicine
http://www.jem.org