| Disease | THIS PILOT STUDY INVESTIGATED THE EFFECT OF VA EXTRACT ON THE SERUM LEVELS AND PRODUCTION OF CYTOKINES IN GROUP OF CANCER PATIENTS UNDERGOING TREATMENT (N=16) IN COMPARISON WITH HEALTHY UNTREATED CONTROLS (N=11). THE SERUM LEVELS OF INTERLEUKIN
-12 (IL-12) (P40 AND P70), AND THE PRODUCTION OF GAMMA INTERFERON (IFN-GAMMA), INTERLEUKIN 2 (IL-2), AND INTERLEUKIN-4 (IL-4) IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS (PBMC) WERE MEASURED IN PATIENTS BEFORE TREATMENT AND ON DAYS 3,5,8,15, AND 21-29
DURING THERAPY, AND IN THE CONTROL GROUP AT THE SAME TIME INTERVALS OVER A TWO-WEEK PERIOD. CYTOKINE LEVELS WERE DETERMINED BY ELISA. IN CANCER PATIENTS, THE SERUM LEVELS OF IL-12 (P40 AND P70) BEFORE THERAPY WERE ABOUT 3-FOLD HIGHER THAN IN
CONTROLS. THEY INCREASED DURING THERAPY, WITH A BORDERLINE SIGNIFICANCE. IN PBMC THE PRODUCTION OF IFN-GAMMA AND IL-2 (BEFORE THERAPY RESPECTIVELY 3-FOLD AND 9-FOLD LOWER THAN IN CONTROLS) INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY (WILCOXON PAIRED SIGNED-RANK
TEST AND MANN-WHITNEY U-TEST, P>0.05) DURING TREATMENT. IN PBMC, IL-4 PRODUCTION WAS IN THE SAME RANGE AS IN CONTROLS, AND REMAINED UNALTERED DURING THERAPY. IN CONCULSION, THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY SHOW THAT TREATMENT WITH VA EXTRACT LEADS AN
INCREASE IN TH1 CYTOKINE LEVELS (IFN-GAMMA AND IL-2), WHICH SUGGESTS THAT CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY COULD BE POSITIVELY AFFECTED. |