Improving immune functions
 

Just thought I should post this pubmed article about reishi mushroom extract (Ganoderma lucidum, GLPS). Someone had recently enquired about this as this supplement is always advised by any Traditional Chinese Medecine practitioner for cancer:


Preclinical studies have established that the Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide (GLPS) fractions have potent anti-tumor activity, which has been associated with the immuno-stimulating effects of GLPS. However, it is unclear whether GLPS has immuno-modulating effects in humans in vivo. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Ganopoly, the polysaccharides fractions extracted from G. lucidum, on the immune function of advanced-stage cancer patients. Thirty-four advance-stage cancer patients were entered onto this study, and treated with 1800 mg Ganopoly, three times daily orally before meals for 12 weeks. Immune parameters (cytokines, T cell subsets, mitotic response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and natural killer activity) were compared between baseline and after 12-week treatment. Thirty patients are assessable for their immune functions. Treatment of Ganopoly for 12 weeks resulted in a significant (P < 0.05) increase in the mean plasma concentrations of interleukin (IL-2), IL-6, and interferon (IFN)-gamma, whereas the levels of IL-1 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) were significantly (P < 0.05) decreased. A marked variability among patients with advanced-stage cancer was observed in the numbers of each lymphocyte subset at baseline. The mean absolute number of CD56+ cells was significantly (P < 0.05) increased after 12-week treatment of Ganopoly, whereas the numbers of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ were just marginally increased compared to baseline levels, with the CD4:CD8 T cell ratios unchanged. PHA responses after 12-week treatment with Ganopoly were enhanced in most patients, when compared to pretreatment baselines (P < 0.05). In addition, Ganopoly treatment resulted in a significant increase (P < 0.05) in the mean NK activity compared to baselines (34.5 +/- 11.8% vs 26.6 +/- 8.3%). The present study indicates that Ganopoly enhanced the immune responses in patients with advanced-stage cancer. Clinical evaluations of response and toxicity are ongoing.
PMID: 12916709 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Hi Full of Beans. Where can this be purchased in the UK? I have looked for it in vain. Nancy

Yes It is not so easy to get here in usual high street health shop. You can however buy some in TCM Traditional Chinese Medecine shops. I personaly I just bought some Japonese red reishy from a TCM shop in central london.

As the japonese red reishi ones are quite pricey I have recently made a search and will try to get some over the internet, not decided on a supplier yet (method they used to grow and extract), they often can deliver in the UK.

I actually went to an intergrative medicine dr who perscribed this for me along with turkey tail mushrooms. He sent it to a local pharmacist who made it up special for me and I bought it directly from him. This way I was guaranteed the right dosage and quality.

Thanks for posting this full of beans. I was afraid he might be a quack!

Full of Beans: thanks for posting this as Caryn's been dealing with a lot of issues due to her immune system being compromised from the chemo. Can you direct me to the article link? I'd like her Onc's approval before taking.

Eric

Happy New Year to you all. I've also read a little about Maitake mushrooms being beneficial, and as far as boosting immune systems goes, Dannon has the new "Danactive" yogurt with the L. casei imunitas cultures in it. Time will tell if these things are of any real benefit, but the way I see it, mushrooms and yogurt are always a good thing. Peace to all. Love, Bill

ganoderma
 

Hi FOB,

A friend of ours here in the boonies gave me samples of a ganoderma/coffee combo quite a while back as she was selling it, and that combo is easy to get, although I don't know enough about any of it one way or another personally. (I'm decaffeinated, for better or worse.)

AlaskaAngel

Thank you!

Eric,

Astragalus seemed to help also. Ruth took both (Gaia liquid caps available at the health food store) a mushroom blend (reishi, maitake and others) and the astragalus to really good affect. Marked spike in WBC TWO times (during chemo and then after rads) hard to attribute to anything else other than adding these supplements.

If they have anti-cancer effect as well, that's a win-win!

Very interesting article.

I am 16 treatments into radiation and have been feeling dead tired, the last few days my energy suddenly picked up and I feel almost normal. I realized this evening that my energy picked up within a day or two of starting Maitake mushrooms. I realize that it may be coincidence but I can't think of any other reason for my new burst of energy.

I wish that they would do a study comparing the different supplements which are marketed to increase NK activity - it is so hard to figure out which one is best. Right now I am taking Noxylane4 and the Maitake mushrooms.

Full of Beans

It is not a cheap book about £45 discounted on Amazon but Omega 3 Fatty acid in Clinical Nutrition Heller Stehr and Koch has some interesting observations on long chain Omega three and immune functions and cancer.

In general terms long chain Omega Three seems to improve immune function and dampen inflammatory pressures at the same time.

RE the above

One element from a natural plant may not reflect the overall impact of the whole.

I simply have not looked at this so cannot intelligently comment but re the above trial IL6 increase may be double edged. Excess IL6 is a problem and features as a marker in many inflammatory conditions.

Also see the COX2 related posts.

I have also seen trials that might suggest higher IL6 is not beneficial in BC

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16927176

Significance of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in breast cancer (review).
Knüpfer H, Preiss R.

Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Leipzig, Härtelstrasse 16-18, Leipzig, Germany. Heike.Knuepfer@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

Cytokines are factors that are known to have both tumor-promoting and inhibitory effects on breast cancer growth depending presumably on their relative concentrations and the presence of other modulating factors. Different cytokines play an important role in controlling the immune system. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine with obviously tumor-promoting and tumor-inhibitory effects. Here, we review the role of IL-6 in in vitro experiments of breast tumor cells, in breast tumor tissues (BTs) and assess its potential as a prognostic indicator in breast cancer patients. A literature search was conducted using PubMed, restricted to articles published in English language. In summary, results regarding the effect of IL-6 on breast tumor cells and on BTs are not unique indicating both tumor-promoting and inhibitory effects of IL-6. Concerning patients' serum IL-6 levels, data are surprisingly unique showing IL-6 to be a negative prognosticator in breast tumor patients.

PMID: 16927176 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


RB

R.B
Thanks about pointing out that IL6 increase is not a good thing. I have no doubt that it is. The fact is that if we considered any inflammatory potential of what we take: well we would not even use olive oil! because of it has mostly omega 6 which has inflamatory effect..

On the balance of evidence it seems to me that Reishi mushroom are still a great help in the stopping of the spread of BC.

Anyhow here is some articles for you to ponder on that are highly relevant to BC. These are from recognised western Institutes outside China ( in cased one argue that they would have to gain to promote it):

1)Combined effect of green tea and Ganoderma lucidum on invasive behavior of breast cancer cells.
Epidemiological studies have suggested that consumption of green tea may decrease the risk of a variety of cancers. In addition, mushroom Ganoderma lucidum has been used for the promotion of health, longevity and treatment of cancer in traditional Chinese medicine. In the present study we show that extract from green tea (GTE) increased the anticancer effect of G. lucidum extract (GLE) on cell proliferation (anchorage-dependent growth) as well as colony formation (anchorage-independent growth) of breast cancer cells. This effect was mediated by the down-regulation of expression of oncogene c-myc in MDA-MB-231 cells. Although individual GTE and GLE independently inhibited adhesion, migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells, their combination demonstrated a synergistic effect, which was mediated by the suppression of secretion of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) from breast cancer cells. Our study suggests the potential use of combined green tea and G. lucidum extracts for the suppression of growth and invasiveness of metastatic breast cancers. PMID: 17332936 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2)Anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor-promoting effects of triterpene acids and sterols from the fungus Ganoderma lucidum.
A series of lanostane-type triterpene acids, including eleven lucidenic acids (3, 4, 9, 10, 13-19) and six ganoderic acids (20-22, 24, 26, 27), as well as six sterols (28-33), all isolated from the fruiting bodies of the fungus Ganoderma lucidum, were examined for their inhibitory effects on the induction of Epstein-Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in Raji cells, a known primary screening test for anti-tumor promoters. All of the compounds tested, except for ganolactone (27) and three sterols (29-31), showed potent inhibitory effects on EBV-EA induction, with IC(50) values of 235-370 mol ratio/32 pmol TPA. In addition, nine lucidenic acids (1, 2, 5-8, 11, 12, 18) and four ganoderic acids (20, 23-25) were found to inhibit TPA-induced inflammation (1 microg/ear) in mice, with ID(50) values of 0.07-0.39 mg per ear. Further, 20-hydroxylucidenic acid N (18) exhibited inhibitory effects on skin-tumor promotion in an in vivo two-stage mouse-skin carcinogenesis test based on 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) as initiator, and with TPA as promoter.PMID: 17311233 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

3)Inhibition of oxidative stress-induced invasiveness of cancer cells by Ganoderma lucidum is mediated through the suppression of interleukin-8 secretion.
Epidemiological studies suggest that the intake of natural/nutrient products is inversely related to cancer risk. While oxidative stress, generating reactive oxygen species, has been linked to cancer initiation and progression, dietary antioxidants have reduced the risk of certain cancers. Experimental studies have demonstrated that antioxidants and phytochemicals could prevent cancer metastasis, and antioxidants were suggested as adjuvants in cancer therapy. Ganoderma lucidum is an Asian medicinal mushroom that has been used for the past two thousand years for the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. G. lucidum is currently popular as a dietary supplement in the form of tea, powder or extract. We have previously demonstrated that G. lucidum suppresses growth, angiogenesis and invasiveness of highly invasive and metastatic breast cancer cells. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of G. lucidum on oxidative stress-induced metastatic behavior of poorly-invasive MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We show that G. lucidum inhibits oxidative stress-induced migration of MCF-7 cells by the down-regulation of MAPK signaling. G. lucidum suppressed oxidative stress stimulated phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (Erk1/2), which resulted in the down-regulation of expression of c-fos, and in the inhibition of transcription factors AP-1 and NF-kappaB. The biological effect of G. lucidum on cell migration was mediated by the suppression of secretion of interleukin-8 from MCF-7 cells exposed to oxidative stress. In summary, our results suggest that G. lucidum inhibits the oxidative stress-induced invasive behavior of breast cancer cells by modulating Erk1/2 signaling and can be potentially considered as an antioxidant in adjuvant cancer therapy.
PMID: 16964420 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

4)Ganoderma lucidum suppresses growth of breast cancer cells through the inhibition of Akt/NF-kappaB signaling.
Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi, Lingzhi) is a popular Asian mushroom that has been used for more than 2 millennia for the general promotion of health and was therefore called the "Mushroom of Immortality." Ganoderma lucidum was also used in traditional Chinese medicine to prevent or treat a variety of diseases, including cancer. We previously demonstrated that Ganoderma lucidum suppresses the invasive behavior of breast cancer cells by inhibiting the transcription factor NF-kappaB. However, the molecular mechanisms responsible for the inhibitory effects of Ganoderma lucidum on the growth of highly invasive and metastatic breast cancer cells has not been fully elucidated. Here, we show that Ganoderma lucidum inhibits proliferation of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells by downregulating Akt/NF-kappaB signaling. Ganoderma lucidum suppresses phosphorylation of Akt on Ser473 and downregulates the expression of Akt, which results in the inhibition of NF-kappaB activity in MDA-MB-231 cells. The biological effect of Ganoderma lucidum was demonstrated by cell cycle arrest at G0/G1, which was the result of the downregulation of expression of NF-kappaB-regulated cyclin D1, followed by the inhibition of cdk4. Our results suggest that Ganoderma lucidum inhibits the growth of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells by modulating Akt/NF-kappaB signaling and could have potential therapeutic use for the treatment of breast cancer.
PMID: 15489214 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Help. Are you saying that olive oil is NOT beneficial?

Hi Fullofbeans,

Thanks for your response.

I posted a reply and have somehow lost it.

In essence my post was a question and not an answer. I have a selection of mushrooms in the cupboard. I did raise the possibility that the agent worked in other ways.

I forget that many do not understand how complex this all is. It would I suppose depend on what the basal levels of IL6 were. There are so many factors

Mushrooms have been well regarded for a long time.

Everything is about balance.


Re Olive Oil

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcom...st_nut_edit.pl

It is mainly omega 9, about 10% Omega 6 and 1% Omega 3.

It has benefical antioxidants and other things.

If you only used olive oil you would have a 1:10 omega three/six balance.

You need a balance of maybe 1:2.

So it is a great healthy oil but you need to also have some balancing sources of Omega 3 like flax.

RB

Indeed my point exactly Olive oil is good for you and has been reported to be synergetic with Herceptin..so far from me wanting to tell you not to have it!! However if you only considered one aspect of the oil for example the omega balance then you could scare people off taking it.

I simply wanted to make the point that if you only looked at one poorly described aspect of the effect of Reishi i.e. IL6 then you could be forgetting to look at the overwhelming beneficial aspect reported.

Sorry R.B but I was worried that your initial response which only focus on increased IL6 may be misleading and scare people off a reportedly great supplement. However I know that it was not really what you intended and perhaps I should have presented more evidence from the outset.

Hi

Thanks for the reply

I was focused on IL6, and was trying to say it was only one thing of many. So many questions and so much I don't know.

RB

fullofbeans,

Your signature doesn't mention Herceptin, were you not HER2 postive? So glad that you are NED!

As long as I have your attention, do you or R.B. have any opinion on DIM?

Thanks much,

Terri

I had no idea what dim was except how I feel some days <img src="http://www.miconejo.net/img/forum/icon_smile.gif" alt="Smile 4" />

So I looked it up.

I figured it was not "Some types of a dwarf irregular galaxy; a small galaxy (dwarf galaxy, "d") which contains a not easily classified structure (irregular galaxy, "Im") that is not spiral ("Sm"). It can also be abbreviated "dI" or "dIrr."

So must be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3%2C3%27-Diindolylmethane


3,3'-Diindolylmethane or DIM is derived from the digestion of indole-3-carbinol, found in Brassica vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower.[citation needed] The reputation of Brassica vegetables as medicinal plants rests in part on the activities of diindolylmethane.[citation needed]


Its back to broccoli and dark green veg etc<img src="http://www.millan.net/minimations/smileys/bokmal.gif" alt="Reading 2" />