Oral therapy with proteolytic enzymes decreases excessive TGF-beta levels in human blood.
Desser L, Holomanova D, Zavadova E, Pavelka K, Mohr T, Herbacek I.
1: Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2001 Jul;47 Suppl:S10-5.
Therapy with oral proteolytic enzymes (OET) with combination drug
products containing papain, bromelain, trypsin, and chymotrypsin has
been shown to be beneficial in clinical settings such as
radiotherapy-induced fibrosis, bleomycin
pneumotoxicity and
immunosuppression in cancer, all of which are nowadays known to be
accompanied by excessive transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)
production. It has been demonstrated that proteolytic enzymes reduce
TGF-beta levels in serum by converting the protease inhibitor alpha2
macroglobulin (alpha2M) from the "slow" form into the "fast" form,
whereby the "fast" form binds and inactivates TGF-beta irreversibly.
In this study we have investigated the effect of OET on the
concentration of TGF-beta1 in serum of patients with rheumatoid
arthritis (RA) (n = 38), osteomyelofibrosis (OMF) (n = 7) and herpes
zoster (HZ) (n = 7). Seventy-eight healthy volunteers served as
controls. TGF-beta1 levels in serum were assessed by enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We have demonstrated that in healthy
volunteers and in patients there exists a correlation between active
and latent TGF-beta1 in serum (r=0.8021; P<0.0001). Treatment with
OET had no significant effect on TGF-beta1 concentration in healthy
volunteers or patients with a normal level of TGF-beta1. In patients
with elevated TGF-beta1 concentration (> 50 ng/ml serum), OET
reduced TGF-beta1 in RA (P < 0.005), in OMF (P < 0.05) and in HZ (P
< 0.05). Conclusion: These
results support the concept that OET is beneficial in diseases
characterized in part by TGF-beta1 overproduction.
PMID: 11561866 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11561866