6 replies to this topic

[smithx]

I'm trying to find out if there is there any research to indicate that using telomere-lengthening compounds such as cycloastrogenol would be good or bad for people who have or may have an autoimmune disease?

Since some of these compounds, and astragalus in general, increase immune activity and t-cell counts, there would appear to be some risk that this could also increase the severity of auto-immune diseases, since they are caused by improper t and b cell lymphocyte activity.

On the other hand I found this study which indicates the reverse: that astragalus actually reduces autoimmune responses:

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/18353241
...
CONCLUSIONS: The astragalus could lower the level of hematuria and 24 hours-albuminuria of the IgAN model, and amelioratse the change of the renal pathology and reduce the deposit of IgA in glomerular mesangium. The possible mechanism of the effect is that astragalus could regulate the derangement of Th1, Th2, accordingly could improve the level of IL-4 and IFN-gamma in the serum and diminish the expression of cytokine Th2 TGF-beta1 and IL-5 of the renal tissue, and thereby could postpone the development of IgAN.
...


Is there additional data? Could whole astragalus or whole extract be beneficial, but purified components such as cycloastrogenol be detrimental?

Any information or studies on this topic would be useful and appreciated.

Edited by smithx, 22 August 2010 - 11:49 AM.

[cnhls]

I am curious about the exact same issue.

Anyone have useful information to share on this topic?

[nowayout]

Do these substances really lengthen telomeres in vivo?

What does it mean when someone says something like astragalus "increases immune activity"? I don't know if there is even a way to give unambiguous meaning to that statement. It sounds more like something that would be in a pamphlet targeted at naïve potential new-agey customers.

[niner]

Do these substances really lengthen telomeres in vivo?

Cycloastragenol does, if the telomere in question is at the critical length or less. If it's longer, telomerase will not efficiently lengthen telomeres even if it is expressed. Thus, what's actually observed in humans is a reduction in the fraction of critically short telomeres. You may see a little bit of increase in average telomere length, particularly if you had a lot of critically short ones, but in general the error bars for the typical tests are too large to reliably tell anything. Sorry for the lack of ref on all this- it's been discussed (with refs) here before.

[hav]

Is there additional data? Could whole astragalus or whole extract be beneficial, but purified components such as cycloastrogenol be detrimental?

There are numerous studies in pubmed that show using astragalus can have a beneficial effect on a number of autoimmune diseases, like rumatoid arthritis, idiopathic membranous nephropathy, myasthenia gravia. Curiously, these particular studies only mention using astragalus, not an extract, an astragaloside, or cycloastragenol. And none them mention telomere length. And my searches targeting astragalus extracts with autoimmune disorders came up empty.

The following study suggests that if anti-inflamatory response is important, perhaps the wrong extract could leave out an important component: formononetin:

Isolation of anti-inflammatory fractions and compounds from the root of Astragalus membranaceus

The anti-inflammatory effect was monitored by the inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) released from lipopolysaccharide-stimulated mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells after treated with AR aqueous extract or its fractions and isolated components. Two major active fractions (P2-3-2-2-2 and P2-3-2-2-3) were found to significantly inhibit NO production at 0.156 mg/mL (p < 0.01). In addition, three chemical components (formononetin, calycosin and astragaloside IV) were successfully isolated from P2-3-2-2-3. Only formononetin could significantly inhibit NO production (p < 0.01), whereas the other two components had no significant effects at concentrations ranging from 0.039 to 0.156 mg/mL. In conclusion, two major anti-inflammatory active fractions that may enhance wound healing were identified, and formononetin was one of the active ingredients in the active fractions.

On the other hand, this in virtro study finds that cycloastragenol can treat blood cultured from AIDS patients based on its antiviral and telomere effects:

The present study shows that exposure of CD8(+) T lymphocytes from HIV-infected human donors to a small molecule telomerase activator (TAT2) modestly retards telomere shortening, increases proliferative potential, and, importantly, enhances cytokine/chemokine production and antiviral activity. The enhanced antiviral effects were abrogated in the presence of a potent and specific telomerase inhibitor, suggesting that TAT2 acts primarily through telomerase activation. Our study is the first to use a pharmacological telomerase-based approach to enhance immune function, thus directly addressing the telomere loss immunopathologic facet of chronic viral infection.

... so I guess the answer may depend on the specifics of the autoimmune disease.

Howard

Edited by hav, 16 July 2013 - 08:25 PM.

[nowayout]

This interests me because I have AS, an autoinflammatory condition, but if yje mechanism is jst via some antiinflamnatory properties then I have better pharmaceuticals already for inflammation.

However if these substances can e.g. reverse my gray hair too then that's another story.

However if these substances can e.g. reverse my gray hair too then that's another story.

[hav]

Formononetin sounds pretty interesting. Its greatest abundance seems to be in red clover... maybe I should stop throwing it away when I weed my garden.

Howard