Biomedical subjects

V Bocci

Publications and source records attributed to V Bocci.

183 records · Page 11Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Mistletoe (viscum album) lectins as cytokine inducers and immunoadjuvant in tumor therapy. A review.

Therapy of cancer with a Viscum extract has been carried out in Europe for over six decades in thousands of patients with uncertain advantages. This approach has been bedeviled by major problems such as variable composition of the extract, lack of knowledge of active component(s) and mechanism of action, to cite a few. However the recent standardization of Viscumin in terms of galactoside-binding lectin activity has allowed to clarify that it can act as powerful inflammatory mediator able to stimulate the immune system. Merits and demerits of this approach have been reviewed and although the active component has probably not unique immunoenhancing properties, it may be useful as an adjuvant in the biological therapy of cancer and it should not be ignored any longer. As usual, medical progress depends upon experimentation and not exclusively on intuition and emotion.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Ozone as a bioregulator. Pharmacology and toxicology of ozonetherapy today.

The disinfectant activity of ozone is well recognized and ozone is used worldwide for sterilization of water. The use of ozone as a complementary medical approach is less known, because it has mostly been used in an empirical fashion without a rational basis and appropriate controls. In spite of this drawback, the use of judicious and standardized ozone dosages can elicit the formation of ROS acting as natural physiological activators of several biological functions. There is now a reasonable understanding of a few mechanisms of action and, using classical pharmacological concepts, it appears possible to formulate a rationale for optimizing clinical applications. A further exciting development is that ozone, being an oxidizer, can upregulate the intracellular anti-oxidant enzymes eventually inhibiting the constant, life-long oxidative stress responsible for degenerative diseases and aging. Among various routes for the administration of ozone, the autohemotransfusion procedure, consisting in exposing blood to ozone, i.e. to a calculated and brief oxidative stress, appears safe, simple, inexpensive and amenable to be adjusted to different pathological states It is hoped that this review will help to dispel prejudices, to clarify that ozone toxicity can be tamed, to show that ozone can act as a bioregulator and to encourage controlled clinical investigations to evaluate definitely the validity of ozonetherapy.

Aging↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Studies on the biological effects of ozone: 7. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after exposure of human blood to ozone.

The acceptance of any complementary medical approach is conditioned by the results obtained after the same scientific scrutiny applied in orthodox medicine. Otherwise any claim of efficacy remains in the realm of fiction. In the case of ozone therapy, the mechanisms of action have remained nebulous and in a series of publications we are trying to present the biochemical, immunological and morphological evidence in favour or against ozone therapy. We have now shown that ozone (O3) dissolved in the water of either plasma or serum or physiological saline generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), of which hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) can be unequivocally demonstrated by using specific methods for its detection. Lipids present in plasma preferentially those present in lipoproteins, undergo peroxidation that is somewhat O3-dose dependent and can be observed by the measurement of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). While the generation of H2O2 is crucial in activating both biochemical (hexose monophosphate shunt) and immunological (via the transcription factor NF-kB) mechanisms, the role of lipid oxidation products (LOP) remains to be investigated. We have shown here that there is a small but consistent induction of some cytokines (TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma and IL-2) when human blood is directly exposed to O3 concentrations up to 100 micrograms/ml per g of blood. On the other hand, isolated blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in tissue culture medium are far more sensitive to the oxidant action of O3 as shown by a progressive reduction of the proliferation index with comparatively far lower O3, concentrations. On the whole, these results support the concept that much of the O3 toxicity is neutralized by the powerful antioxidant system of blood. The minimal hemolysis supports this idea but as far as platelets are concerned, we must mention that they tend to aggregate in heparinized blood, even when it is exposed to an O3 concentration of 40 micrograms/ml. In spite of the lack of side-effects after autohemotherapy, this drawback must be kept in mind and avoided in clinical practice.

Adult↗