Very recent discoveries have been made on combined use of glucan and vitamin C derivatives. Intracellular ascorbate content in phagocyting cells reaches 40 times the level of plasma ascorbates. Macrophages activated with beta-1,3-D-glucan exhibit a significant drop in the intracellular ascorbate content. This might lead to the exhaustion of free-radical scavenging capacity of these cells, as well as to impaired motility and certain enzyme production by macrophages.
There are products on the market now that combine beta-1,3-D-glucan and vitamin C derivatives to replenish ascobate levels in the glucan-activated macrophages. This is not only physiological from the standpoint of glucan pharmacological effects, but it also seems to have a great impact on results of Vitamin C treatments.
1: Mol Urol 2000 Spring;4(1):7-14 Induction of apoptosis in human prostatic cancer cells with beta-glucan.
Fullerton SA, Samadi AA et al, Department of Urology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York. [Medline record in process]
Purpose: To explore more effective treatment for hormone-refractory prostate cancer, we investigated the potential antitumor effect of beta-glucan, a polysaccharide of the Maitake mushroom, on prostatic cancer cells in vitro.
Materials and Methods: Human prostate cancer PC-3 cells were treated with various concentrations of the highly purified beta-glucan preparation Grifron-D(R) (GD), and viability was determined at 24 h.
Results: A dose-response study showed that almost complete (>95%) cell death was attained in 24 h with GD >/= 480 &mgr;g/mL. Combinations of GD in a concentration as low as 30 to 60 &mgr;g/mL with 200 &mgr;M vitamin C were as effective as GD alone at 480 &mgr;g/mL, inducing >90% cytotoxic cell death. Simultaneous use with various anticancer drugs showed little potentiation of their efficacy except for the carmustine/GD combination (approximately 90% reduction in cell viability). The significantly (twofold) elevated LPO level and positive ISH staining of GD-treated cells indicated oxidative membrane damage resulting in apoptotic cell death.
Conclusion: A bioactive &be;-glucan from the Maitake mushroom has a cytotoxic effect, presumably through oxidative stress, on prostatic cancer cells in vitro, leading to apoptosis. Potentiation of GD action by vitamin C and the chemosensitizing effect of GD on carmustine may also have clinical implications. Therefore, this unique mushroom polysaccharide may have great a potential as an alternative therapeutic modality for prostate cancer. PMID: 10851301, UI: 20313095
Dr. Fukumi Morishige, M.D., Ph.D., a renowned Japanese surgeon and a member of the Linus Pauhng Institute of Science and Medicine, explained that vitamin C reduces the high molecular weight of mushroom polysaccharides (beta glucans) and that, as the vitamin C breaks up these sugars, their viscosity or stickiness drops and bio availability increases, thus rendering more accessibility to immune system cells, such as macrophages and N-killer cers. Therefore, it is suggested that vitamin C will be taken together with Grifron especially for the people suggested to take large doses of Grifron.
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