Veterinary
Topics:
Immune
System: Recognize,
Remember, and Respond
Transfer
factor could be link to using body’s own defense system to
promote better health.
by
Kenneth L. Marcella, D.V.M.
Why resistance occurs
Passed on immunity
Effects on immune system
What else it does
Reduced use of antibiotics
How the immune system works?
THERE
always seems to be one yearling that just does not do as well
as his pasture mates. In the same environment as all the others,
with the same amount and types of stress, he is the one who
gets the respiratory infection. Or he has the worst and most
persistent skin irritations when others have just a few scales
and scabs that quickly heal.
Consider
the broodmare that becomes pregnant each year but always develops
a uterine infection that takes a lot of time and trouble to
clear up. She and the yearling are most likely to have immune
systems that are weaker than average and that are affected
by viruses, bacteria, and other potentially damaging agents
that would not trouble a normal horse.
Why
resistance occurs
Immunotherapy
is the field of medicine that deals with the immune system
and tries to use the normal body defense mechanism to treat
and prevent diseases, while seeking to help sensitive or weaker
horses respond as would a normal individual. Immunotherapy
was predicted to be one of the most rapidly expanding areas
of science in the past decade, and great advances were expected.
Through our ability to manipulate the body’s immune system,
we were going to make people and animals healthier and increase
the quality and length of life.
Also
expected were immune-mediated advances that would make doctors
less reliant on antibiotics. Over the years, through misuse
and overuse of antibiotics, and the simple development of genetic
resistance, many types of pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria
have become immune to antibiotics that were able to kill them
less than ten to 20 years ago. Antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus
organisms are a particular problem in humans, which is complicating
everything from simple skin infections to organ transplants.
Veterinary
medicine has fared somewhat better because many simple antibiotics
(such as penicillin) still work reasonably well in animals,
but it is only a matter of time before resistance starts to
affect horses. Through immunotherapy, veterinarians would prescribe
an immune stimulant and let these pumped-up body defenses do
the rest. This method of manipulating the body was expected
to provide better health for patients, while it decreased the
potential for the development of antibiotic resistance.
Unfortunately,
these miracle immune agents have not appeared. A few products
help the body deal with infection and stress but not at the
level that was expected. Until now.
Passed
on immunity
Transfer
factor is a newly released immune agent that could be the long-awaited
miracle link to using the body’s own defense system to promote
better health. "It is our ability to create a really healthy
immune system that I think represents the greatest potential
gains in health in the world," said Richard Bennett, Ph.D.,
an infectious disease immunologist from California.
The
immune system provides humans and animals with the ability
to recognize, remember, and respond to potentially harmful
agents. Through different parts of the immune system (see sidebar),
a horse can produce antigen against an invading virus, can
use white blood cells to fight off a bacterial cold, or can
even use specialized tissue cells to kill molds, fungi, and
even some cancer types.
In
1949, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence, a researcher working on tuberculosis,
found he could transfer immunity between patients using components
of white blood cells, the body’s first line of defense against
disease and a major component of the immune system. Lawrence
found the key element in this passed-on immunity was part of
the lymphocyte cell; he called this component "transfer factor."
This
discovery was not actively pursued, however, until the late
1980s. At that time, colostrum (the first nursing milk produced
by humans and animals) was discovered to contain significant
amounts of transfer factor. It had been well established that
breast-fed infants were healthier than infants fed a nutritionally
complete synthetic formula. The importance of absorption of
adequate colostrum by foals had been universally accepted.
Researchers put these facts together and postulated that the
transfer factor in colostrum potentially stimulated the immune
systems of young humans and animals, and the transferred immune
protection made these infants healthier.
The
exact mechanism of action of transfer factor has yet to be
established, but it is known that the molecule is a lymphokine.
The two most well-known lymphokines are interferon and interleukin--both
potent immune agents. These lymphokines are protein messengers
and, while they do not kill bacteria or hunt down viruses,
they are whistle-blowers for the entire immune system. They
play a role in activating and mobilizing antibodies and in
stimulating the process by which more immune cells are produced.
Transfer factor is the most potent messenger found to date,
and it has three distinct effects on the immune system.
Effects
on immune system
Transfer
factor helps the body recognize antigens. The company that
holds the patent for extracting transfer factor from its most
available source, cow colostrum, points out that 200 milligrams
of transfer factor has the potential for recognizing hundreds
of pathogens. Not only can transfer factor be specific for
an individual bacterium or virus to which the animal producing
the colostrum has been exposed, but it also can stimulate a
multivalent response.
This
type of response, transfer factor activates lymphocytes against
several strains of bacteria or several types of viruses all
from a single initial message. "This is the really exciting
part of immunotherapy in general and of transfer factor specifically.
4Life
Research has found that, by exposing cattle to various bacteria
and viruses, the animals can produce transfer factor that will
stimulate immunity to other related strains of bacteria and
viruses that are much more damaging to other species. Transfer
factor is not species-specific, so lymphokines produced in
cattle are capable of stimulating equally well equine or human
immune systems.
"The
other really exciting aspect of transfer factor,"is the time
sequence. Most types of antibody protection, such as that seen
with vaccine use, take ten to 14 days to develop optimally. "Transfer
factor," according to substantiated research, activates that
same immunity in 24 hours.
If
transfer factor can produce such boosts in 24 hours, then its
use as a pre-travel protectant, heavy training protectant,
or post-exposure treatment is tremendous.
Racehorses,
who are prone to travel stress and exposure to viruses and
bacteria, should be vaccinated on a regular schedule. Transfer
factor allows for more rapid production and can be used well
before race-day medication rules come into play. A horse, for
example, could be given transfer factor on Monday through Thursday
and legally race on Saturday.
What
else it does
Transfer
factor also carries out other important functions:
Natural
killer-cell inductor. Natural killer cells are nonspecific
cells that seek out and destroy infected or diseased cells
and cells invaded by viruses. Transfer factor increases natural
killer-cell activity 50% and is nonspecies specific.
It
is believed that this aspect of transfer factor is related
to the significant improvements seen in certain cancer patients
that have used it.
Suppressor
of immune function. It is paradoxical that the same product
can both stimulate and suppress immune function, but the proper
function of the immune system relates to the specific signals
it is given.
Transfer
factor can stimulate the release of antigens in response to
a viral challenge or it can stimulate the release of T-suppressor
cells when the immune system overreacts. Autoimmune diseases,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD or heaves), and
various allergic reactions are all situations where the body’s
immune system has overreacted to antigenic stimulation. Transfer
factor works in these situations because it can slow down this
overactive response.
Reduced
use of antibiotics
While
discussions of the immune system tend to be fairly technical,
the practical advantages of a potent new immune stimulant such
as transfer factor are clear. The ability to stimulate the
horse’s own body to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses
will reduce the amounts and types of antibiotics that may need
to be used by veterinarians.
It
is crucial to retain antibiotics that are still functional
for veterinarians and to use them in a way that will maintain
their effectiveness for as long as possible.
Horses
suffering from such chronic diseases as Cushing’s syndrome,
laminitis, colitis, and cancers ranging from sarcoids to melanomas
also may benefit. Chronic reproductive infections may benefit
from this type of immune boost. Because the immune system seeks
to heal the body from within and to make it more resistant
from attack from without, any immune improvement means better
health in general. This is the long-awaited promise from the
field of immunotherapy and perhaps transfer factor will finally
deliver.
How
the immune system works
THE
BODY has two principal immune defense systems: humoral (through
the blood) and cellular (specialized cells in body tissue).
Specialized
cells in the liver, spleen, lymph nodes, and bone marrow produce
cells that, in turn, produce antibodies. These cells are exposed
to a potentially damaging agent, such as a virus, which they
recognize as not part of the body and potentially irritating
to the horse. Recognition is important because some viruses
seek to enter the body and cause problems by hiding in normal
cells or by using other techniques to keep the body from being
alerted to their presence.
Once
the foreign particle is recognized, the immune system is programmed
to remember what type of problem this specific invader can
cause and which specific antibodies are necessary to fight
it. Exposure to damaging agents (pathogens) begins to occur
soon after birth. Humans and animals catalog these pathogens
for later reference.
Immunoglobulins
(specific antibodies) potentially can recognize huge numbers
of antigens when the body releases them into the bloodstream
in response to a medical threat. This is the basis of the humoral
response.
Other
cells called lymphocytes are responsible for cellular-based
immunity. These cells produce lymphokines that control hypersensitivity
or allergic reactions. These lymphokines also are responsible
for the rejection of transferred foreign tissue and the recognition
and rejection of tumor cells. Together, the humoral and cellular
portions of the immune system seek to keep the body free of
infectious agents and invading unwanted cells. --Kenneth L.
Marcella, D.V.M
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