Oral Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Chronic Diseases and Infections

Immunotherapy has recently emerged as a novel and appealing strategy for treating cancer and other acute and chronic diseases. During an infection, macrophage phagocytic cells proliferate in order to counteract the infection.

For the last 20 years, the group-specific component (Gc) protein-derived Macrophage Activating Factor (GcMAF), has received a lot of attention. In 1999, the Japanese researcher Nobuto Yamamoto published his first report mentioning the use of Gc -MAF on Tumour Bearing Mice, along with another group the same year. It has received a great deal of attention in the past few years because of its proposed therapeutic use in the immunotherapy of cancer and other diseases ranging from autism and AIDS to multiple sclerosis and lupus.

There is substantial scientific evidence in the last 20 years, demonstrating that GcMAF, extracted from human blood, inhibits cancer cell proliferation in vitro, angiogenesis and tumour growth in the experimental animal, and may have a role in the immunotherapy of a variety of conditions. [1-10].

Further research has shown that blood derived GcMAF may also play a significant role in reducing the damage inflicted by chemotherapy in neurons and glial cells in vitro [11, 12]. This finding will provide an excellent protective factor for those doing chemotherapy.

There is an alternative way of producing GcMAF by taking oral colostrum macrophage-activating factor (MAF) produced from bovine colostrum. This has shown high macrophage phagocytic activity as well, is easy to dissolve and drink and is not as expensive and difficult to use as the human blood derived GcMAF which involves injecting.

This paper discusses the science behind such an oral formulation.

The aim of this review is to provide insight into the natural components in these oral formulations responsible for immune modulation and some of the mechanisms involved. These new oral formulations, derived from buffalo colostrum, we have called Oral Colostrum Macrophage Activating Factor (OCMAF) or simply Colostrum MAF.

Oral Colostrum MAF has other advantages over injectable GcMAF - less chance of contamination from human blood serum and does not need to be injected by a doctor. Colostrum MAF is derived from bovine colostrum, a food source, and is considered a food or dietary supplement.

Additionally, another important benefit of oral colostrum MAF is that it did not mediate production of inflammatory cytokines, including; tumour necrosis factor cytokine interleukin-1s factoβ [13]. If colostrum MAF can be used to suppress the production of inflammatory cytokines, it can be an effective treatment for autoimmune diseases as well.