THE FAUCI FILES, Vol 3( 23): Murder by Compound Q -- The "Underground"
Trials
February 1, 2000
In the late 1980's Martin Delaney descended upon the AIDS activism scene
as a pharmaceutical industry plant. While Delaney claimed to be gay, he
wasn't. While Delaney claimed to have had a lover who died from AIDS, he
didn't. And while Delaney claimed to have had a "fatal disease" that
could kill him any moment, he obviously did not. Thanks to the very
high attrition rate among the AIDS activists of that time, it wasn't
long before Delaney took over the AIDS activist scene and turned it
into the "Treatment Activist" scheme.
Delaney and NIH/NIAID Dictator-Direktor, Dr. Anthony "Mussolini", have
worked hand-in-hand since Delaney oozed on the activist scene. With
Fauci's connections, it was no mystery how Delaney ended up being paid
$250,000 by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals for conducting his "heroic" "life
saving" underground trials for Compound Q, manufactured by Sandoz.
While Delaney recruited for his Compound Q (Trichosanthin) trial, he had
NO medical training nor medical licensure, yet a number of gay men died
in Delaney's human experiments. WHY WAS THIS MAN NOT PROSECUTED FOR
MURDER? WHY WAS THIS MAN NOT PROSECUTED FOR PRACTICING MEDICINE WITHOUT
A LICENSE?
Perhaps the answer is obvious: Toni "The Rat" Fauci, Delaney's friend.
Here is the transcript from a PBS broadcast titled "AIDS Quarterly,
Winter 1990". Take note of Delaney's single-minded fixation on the
failed CD4 T-cell surrogate marker and the fact that Compound Q is
yet another immunosuppressive drug that raises the CD4 count in the
blood within hours -- yet nobody improved and everybody did poorly.
Everyone did poorly, that is, with the exception of Delaney -- this
monster NEVER ACCOUNTED for the lives he took, nor the quarter of a
million dollars he was paid by Sandoz - nor has Delaney EVER
accounted for the MILLIONS of dollars he has received from the
pharmaceutical industry in the 10 years that followed.
Martin Delaney and his organization -- Project Inform San Francisco --
remain unaccountable to anyone for what they claim to do in the
name of people with HIV and AIDS.
As to Delaney's purported "imminent fatal disease" of a decade ago...
perhaps the luminaries on the Project Inform Board of Directors,
such as Robert Gallo and David Ho, could render a medical
opinion about Delaney's miraculous recovery from "imminent death"
-- but, of course, that would be something quite new to their
adventures in medicine.
W. Fred Shaw
============
Martin Delaney's Compound Q Odyssey
Transcribed and commented by W. Fred Shaw (frshaw at delphi.com)
The following is a transcript from the PBS broadcast of the Winter
1990 AIDS Quarterly program, narrated by Peter Jennings. This
transcript concerns the part of the program dedicated to Compound
Q, and the unofficial study directed by Project Inform's Martin
Delaney.
In response to Martin Delaney's March 28, 1996 posting on
sci.med.aids, some commentary - in parentheses ( ) - is added in
response to selected statements to help guide the reader and
provide some historical insight into these disturbing events. The
similarities between this trial and other AIDS drug trials are
quite striking.
The PBS program begins on May 23, 1989 with Martin Delaney
speaking with men in front of immunologist Dr. Alan Levin's San
Francisco medical office:
DELANEY (speaking to the men): Project Inform is NOT the supplier
of this (Compound Q) but I AM acting as the courier to get it to
you guys from the people who brought it into the country (from
China).
(Delaney doublespeak - Martin Delaney IS Project Inform. Later in
the transcript Delaney forgets his courier status and claims that
the patients are the distributors)
PETER JENNINGS (narrating): Martin Delaney is one of the most
influential AIDS activists in the country. For years he's been
challenging the FDA to speed up its drug trial procedure.
DELANEY: I think it's been shown time and again in AIDS, when you
got a crisis, a national emergency going on, you have to take a
shorter path to your goal.
(This story exemplifies how a "shorter path" can worsen a crisis).
PETER JENNINGS (narrating): Trichosanthin, better known as
Compound Q, a Chinese abortion and cancer drug. It was tantalizing
because it killed HIV-infected cells in the test tube. The FDA
promised human trials. But for activists like Martin Delaney,
trials administered by the FDA would take too long. So Delaney
joined forces with Dr. Alan Levin, a San Francisco immunologist,
who was prepared to conduct an accelerated trial ... illegally.
LEVIN: Now it's not a simple treatment, and its not a safe
treatment, and the odds are very good someone's going to die of
this treatment. We're not kidding ourselves - this is not a
magical panacea.
(These initial warnings by Levin are soon to be lost in the
enthusiasm)
PETER JENNINGS: Dr. Levin was prepared to put his reputation on
the line, because many people had imported it from China and were
taking unsupervised doses. Levin asked for volunteers from among
his own patients. He and his staff chose 3 who had advanced cases
of AIDS.
LEVIN STAFF MEMBER (interviewing trial patient): Do you understand
that Dr. Levin does not guarantee that trichosanthin treatment
will slow down or stop your AIDS. Do you understand that this is
not necessarily a cure for AIDS?
(Aren't these patient warnings much different than Levin's
previous statement that "someone's going to die of this
treatment"? It becomes quite clear later in the program that, in
fact, patients held on to the false belief that Compound Q was a
"magic bullet".).
PETER JENNINGS: One of them, 41 year-old Tandy Valou.
TANDY: I'm in my seventh year of dealing with this and I'm tired
of all the symptoms. I'm willing to take the risk to wipe it out
completely. Of course, my main hope is that it is going to
eliminate the virus completely and I really believe it is. In
terms of hopes for myself, I'm a survivor, I feel like that now.
If it doesn't work for me that's not the end of the road for me.
But I think it may be for a lot of people. So many people are
counting on this drug.
(As in other trials, patients are frequently led to believe that
they will "wipe it out completely", whatever the risk)
PETER JENNINGS: Day 1: The patients receive their first infusion
with Compound Q. The trial consisted of 3 doses over 3 weeks.
LEVIN: I can tell you that we're going to see benefit, or lack or
benefit in hours, certainly in days.
(Here, the immunologist believes that the "benefit", in this case
an increase of CD4 cells, seen in a matter of hours or days, is
the result of the drug killing virus-infected cells. Aren't such
responses an obvious response of the immune system to Compound Q -
similar to the "flushing out" of existing CD4 cells by AZT in the
same time period?).
PETER JENNINGS: Dr. Levin was looking for an increase in T4 cells,
the white blood cells that fight disease. He was worried about
side-effects. He was most concerned about MTD, the maximum
tolerated dose, that signals when the drug is about to overpower
the body. Besides Andy Valou, the other patients were 39 year old
Norman Watkins and 41 year old Ron Fisher.
PETER JENNINGS (as the first infusion was started): Dr. Larry
Waite assisted Dr. Levin.
WAITE: We needed people who had tried previous therapies and who
had failed those previous therapies. They have tried virtually
everything and everything is failing them and they are at the
point now where they are trying this as literally... it is their
last resort.
( The "last resort" school of thought - no consideration given to
the acceleration of a patient's death )
PETER JENNINGS: They waited anxiously for the drug to take effect.
TANDY (receiving treatment): I was thinking about so many of my
friends that have died. And I felt their presence.
RON FISHER: I'm going to survive this and get over it. I'm
committed to it. I believe that I'm going to survive and get over
it.
(Ron Fisher would die less than four weeks later from "pulmonary
cancer", more likely fulminating Kaposi's Sarcoma of the lungs,
undoubtedly due to the profound immune suppression of Compound Q.
Norman Watkins died months later).
PETER JENNINGS: They were kept overnight for observation. The
activist (Delaney) and the doctor were anxious too.
DELANEY: Let's say the drug worked. Let's say it knocked out all
these infected cells. Would the immune system recover?
(This question not only reveals Delaney's limited knowledge of
immunology, but isn't this a basic science question that should be
answered BEFORE starting a clinical trial involving an
immunosuppressive and toxic drug?).
LEVIN: I'm going to speculate. The guy with high suppressor cells
will respond because he has a lot of bone marrow reserves. The guy
with low total T cells and low suppressor cells might have more
trouble. My sense is that the guys whose bone marrow is damaged by
AZT won't do as well as the guys whose bone marrow's haven't been
damaged by AZT. I'm speculating again that there is going to be a
dramatically clear result one way or the other.
(As seen later, what does a 12 hour, 35% increase of CD4 cells
have to do with "a lot of bone marrow reserves"? Clearly the
increase was a flushing effect. Further, the trichosanthin
research that is cited after this transcript clearly shows that
the CD8 CTLs would be expected to decline together with a
suppression of IL-2 and a decreased lymphoproliferative effect).
DELANEY: I hope you're right.
(Hope? )
LEVIN: I'm also speculating that we're going to run into big
trouble with some guys.
PETER JENNINGS: The next morning the first set of results was
encouraging.
LEVIN: In the main everybody did very well. In the one patient
that we have the data on right now, we see about a 35% increase in
the white blood cells in 12 hours, that's pretty impressive.
Medically, scientifically and ethically, it should be made
available to every HIV-positive person by the end of the year if
it works. And we'll know that within six weeks to two months.
(CD4's increase by 35% in 12 hours? This is the flushing response
to the drug).
PETER JENNINGS: A very accelerated trial. Across town, at San
Francisco General Hospital, Compound Q was undergoing an official
FDA trial, and it would take at least 18 months, under the
direction of Dr. Paul Volberding.
VOLBERDING: Even though there was some prior experience with this
drug in China, there wasn't any experience any of us had any
direct involvement with, and we expected that the drug would be
more toxic in the setting of AIDS. So when we designed the initial
trials, we said we don't really know what dose to use, we don't
know what side-effects to expect, so we'll do a very careful
study, it's called a dose-escalating study, where we start out
with very low doses of the drug and build up as we get more
comfortable with the drug.
PETER JENNINGS: Patients in Dr. Volberding's trial initially
received only a fraction of the dose that Dr. Levin was
administering to his volunteers.
VOLBERDING: A traditional way that we've used new drugs - drugs
for the first time in people - the plan for this drug is really
comparable to the plan we have used for drugs in the past.
PETER JENNINGS: Dr. Volberding did not know that the secret
(Levin) trial was taking place. On the seventh day of his trial,
Dr. Levin was optimistic.
LEVIN: In every patient we've seen at least a doubling, if not a
tripling, of the white blood cell count, and these people have run
very low white blood cell counts for years, or for at least the
year that we've been tracking them. So something very dramatic is
happening to them. There are a lot of questions as to whether to
double the dose next time or even to increase it by 10%, but we
just don't know. So right now, to be on the safe side, we're just
going to expand the population at this dose level and monitor
them.
(Clearly, a dramatic CD4 flushing response - but this was seen as
"good" because Delaney and the good doctor were focusing on the
CD4 surrogate marker. It was way too soon to expand the trial
after only seven days with the first group)
PETER JENNINGS: So the next day, Norman, Andy and Ron received
their second infusion. The same amount as the first time. While
four new volunteers began in the trial.
DELANEY (hunched over the lab results): That's remarkable
(referring to the increases in white blood counts).
(As usual, Delaney is fixated on the singular CD4 surrogate
marker).
PETER JENNINGS: On the 8th day, the experiment took a turn for the
worse. After his second infusion, Tandy's mental capacity was
seriously impaired.
TANDY (disheveled and tearful): I'm scared, very, very much scared
right now. I've been here all day, since, oh what 8:30 or 9:30.
The doctor wanted to see what's happening with me. He's given me
some medication (mumbling) ...so difficult ...and it's scary. I'm
pretty scared (mumbling, tearful).
(All prospective patients of toxic drug clinical trials should see
this tape).
LEVIN: Well, Tandy, as you saw, had an episode where he has a lot
of confusion. He has difficulty gathering words and Organic Brain
Syndrome. And of course, most of our guys have described some
level of feeling confused and inability to think well. He happens
to be the worst. He's had the worst reaction of any of the guys
regards his problems with the drug.
(Organic Brain Syndrome (dementia) only eight days after starting
a toxic, immunosuppressive therapy like Compound Q? Interestingly,
this "Syndrome" later disappeared two days after the patient
stopped taking his drugs).
PETER JENNINGS: At this point Dr. Levin speculated that Compound Q
might be killing brain cells, leading to temporary dementia or
even coma. Then Levin's assistant Clark Housman learned that Norm
was also ill. The drug was taking over his body. It appeared they
had reached maximum tolerated dose, MTD.
HOUSMAN (Levin's assistant - excerpted): Norm has to come in today
anyway for blood work, we have to check him out. If he can't walk,
we have to get him in by ambulance.
PETER JENNINGS: A worried Dr. Levin made a decision.
LEVIN: I'm not going any further with anybody.
(Excellent moral and ethical choice, but one that unfortunately
was short-lived)
HOUSMAN: What does this mean for (the) Thursday group?
LEVIN: You mean in terms of the second infusion? No second
infusion on anybody as far as I'm concerned.
RECEPTIONIST (on Telephone Intercom): Can you take a call from
Martin Delaney?
LEVIN: Hi Marty. We're hitting the wall. Well Tandy has marked
phages which are chronic, he has atrophy and dirty white matter.
Well, he's got AIDS dementia. In his case we have to wait and
watch. Norm Watson is in here with a temperature of 103.2 which is
coming down. The problem with him is we don't know what antibiotic
to use because he's been on all of them. I really don't like
hurting people. But, you know, obviously these guys had no
alternative. I just don't want to be the one that accelerates
their demise. But, you know, we might be able to pull them
through.
(Was Norm's fever a result of the emergence of a copathgen due to
further immune suppression by Compound Q?).
PETER JENNINGS: Hours later, Levin wanted to cancel the trial,
Delaney wanted to proceed. They argued.
LEVIN: Next question though is the way to go with the second
infusion on the second group.
DELANEY: See, on that one I'm more inclined to think "yes" but
maybe rethinking the dosage question. I know some of those guys
are very upset (about the prospect) of not doing it too.
(What had Delaney told "those guys" about Compound Q that made
them so very upset at the thought of not being able to use it?
Clearly, Delaney is not expressing any sense of compassion for
these patients, since he clearly thinks these patients are going
to die anyway - a mindset that has pervaded all of the AIDS
clinical trials.)
LEVIN: But they're so sick.
DELANEY: Yeah. Well what about making some individual choices
then? Letting them call it. I mean they're sort of calling it
anyway so what is the difference here?
(Individual choices? Based on what information - that which is
spoon-fed by Delaney?)
LEVIN: Cause I'd feel guilty about hurting them no matter what
they say.
(The doctor has to EXPLAIN this to Delaney?)
DELANEY: See there is nothing in any of the lab work I've seen
right now that suggests a problem with anybody. I mean the only
stuff in the lab work suggests some fairly significant benefits in
fact. Now it's too early to make any kind of conclusion from that
but I didn't see any evidence of harm in any of the blood work, do
you?
(These patients are as sick as dogs, yet Doctor Delaney "didn't
see any evidence of harm" - he knew that the CD4 marker was the
single key to health and long life. One must ask, where is
Delaney's compassion?).
LEVIN: I just see the evidence of harm walking in the door.
DELANEY: Yeah clinical, right (laughing)
(A VERY revealing insight into the mind of Delaney)
PETER JENNINGS: By this point the trial was no longer a secret -
work had leaked to the FDA. But the agency did not intervene.
(discussion about FDA history and policy, thalidomide, etc.)
PETER JENNINGS: ...But the agency (FDA) was unprepared to deal
with the sudden onslaught of the AIDS epidemic and the highly
politicized gay community.
(more FDA discussion about the agency being on the defensive).
PETER JENNINGS: (Picture of Norman and Dr. Levin at Norman's
home). By the end of the second week, Norman was unable to leave
home and come for a checkup. Compound Q had apparently further
weakened his immune system. Dr. Levin went to him.
NORMAN: All three of us got sore, and tired and fatigued, and I
had trouble with fevers for two years so I didn't know if it was
from another infection or from the drug itself. This has been a
bad week. (If) I die, I was going to die anyway, probably.
(Tearful) it's hard ... hard.
(Norman dies in the months to follow)
PETER JENNINGS: Tandy's condition was troubling.
TANDY: (tearful, confused, disheveled, shaky voice) I was doing OK
for a while, then completely lost it, completely lost my capacity
(drifting off) very, very out of it. Very much out of it.
DELANEY: Well this comes back to the question that always comes up
with me, and that is do you treat the very sick people who
desperately want to get treated, because they feel they have to,
or do you try to treat people at an earlier stage of the disease?
(Showing no compassion for Tandy's condition, Delaney is looking
for another target - healthy persons at "an earlier stage of the
disease". When does it make sense to treat healthy, asymptomatic
patients with toxic, immunosuppressive therapies?)
LEVIN: Well this is a Phase I trial. That's what you do in the
first place, establish MTD on the basis of the sicker patients.
(So that's what the "sicker patients" are for in clinical trials!
Humans are cheaper than Chimps)
DELANEY: But so often they're the wrong patients to try treating.
I mean the history of this disease has been that every drug that's
come along has worked better at earlier stages, rather than later.
(Delaney's "logic" ignores the fact that healthier patients
outlast sicker patients)
PETER JENNINGS: Then Tandy and Norman stop taking Compound Q. For
the next two months, the trial continued with healthier patients,
altogether 19 men were taking Compound Q. Then in late June, Ron
Fisher died of pulmonary cancer. Days later, another patient died.
And suddenly the news was everywhere. The secret that had been
debated only behind the closed doors of the FDA was suddenly very
public.
VOLBERDING: Well I think first of all, the Project Inform study is
playing more than a passive role, they're encouraging by being
involved, patients to use drugs out of desperation that haven't
been tested for safety.
(As Volberding confirms, Delaney's " career" has been built on the
fear and desperation of AIDS patients).
DELANEY: We face the situation here that have been typical
throughout the AIDS epidemic in that patients have been gearing up
for large scale importation and distribution of this drug because
it appears to be so promising.
(As admitted in his opening remarks of the program, Delaney said
HE was "gearing up" for distribution - not the patients)
PETER JENNINGS: Six weeks later the FDA, which had known about the
trial almost from the beginning, felt obliged to respond, it sent
a letter to Martin Delaney.
ELLEN COOPER (FDA Director of Antiviral Products): the letter was,
basically, told Mr. Delaney that certainly we did not approve of
the protocol, that it was illegal.
(Elinor Burkitt's recent book, "The Gravest Show on Earth" reveals
much about how Delaney, especially his interaction with Ellen
Cooper in the spirit of "working together")
PETER JENNINGS: But the letter had a curious turn of phrase.
Although it said "we feel that you should discontinue any further
unapproved experimentation", it closed with "we look forward to
working with you". An unprecedented invitation to an AIDS
activist.
DELANEY: I never expected (the) FDA to, you know, come down on us
and lock us up, I think they understood the good faith and
intentions of what we were doing and that once they had the
opportunity to look at how we did it, I think they could
understand that we were scientifically responsible as well.
(Scientifically responsible? Good intentions? Good faith? Ignoring
the patient's clinical presentation and lacking in compassion?
Volberding's earlier commentary should be reviewed in this regard.
Delaney's previous experience as a public relations hack is quite
obvious here.)
FDA EXPERT: The AIDS drugs are treated in a wholly separate
category, and the FDA is developing separate rules for those
drugs. The long term question is to what extent, when they get
those rules in place, those rules will become the rules for drugs
for arthritis, and ulcers, and diabetes, and asthma and so forth.
PETER JENNINGS: By the Fall, Dr. Levin had assessed his findings
from the trial, and claimed that the drug might keep the AIDS
virus from reproducing. So he thought his experiments were
justified.
(What happened to the CD4 counts? Clearly, trichosanthin causes
the suppression of IL-2 and the suppression of cellular
proliferation - this immunosuppression is NOT specific to infected
cells but negatively affects the immune system as a whole).
LEVIN: I've got to tell you that the obligation between the doctor
and the patient is above the law of any land. Period. And if the
Nazis say "throw the Jew in the oven", as a doctor I would be
obligated to say "no". I don't care what any regulatory affairs -
any governmental institution tells me - if this is going to save
lives, I'm going to do it. And I'll tell ya I'll do anything
scientifically, medically and morally correct and somebody else
has to make it legal.
(Levin, now the hero, confuses the role of the Nazi and the doctor
- using the unfortunate Jew/oven metaphor. Aren't Levin and
Delaney the ones throwing the Jew - represented by the sickest
patients - into the oven - represented by this trial? How simple
it is to justify the killing of patients through the twisting of
metaphors)
PETER JENNINGS: But by the end of the year, it was clear that
Compound Q was NOT the miracle cure. Norman Watkins died of
complications from AIDS - Compound Q may have contributed to his
death. By then, one of the patients in the San Francisco General
trial had died as well. Dr. Volberding had a different view of Dr.
Levin's efforts.
VOLBERDING: We felt quite strongly that this was not a good idea
to do this kind of a study in a non-academic setting, without the
review - the external review of institutional review boards, the
FDA, and a drug company sponsor. And I still feel that that's
true. I feel what's changed is that, I appreciate again that our
goals are the same and that we've learned too over time that we
really do have to look at our ways of approaching things to make
sure that we're not slowing things down. It's not fair to
criticize someone else if, in fact, we are part of the problem.
(During this same time period (1989), Volberding was advocating
high-dose AZT for "early intervention" - today Volberding admits
that this was a failed strategy from the outset)
PETER JENNINGS: But he (Levin) also had some good news, Tandy
Valou had rallied.
Tandy: I actually thought I was dying, I woke up one morning, I
said to myself "Tandy, this isn't working, I think you're dying,
stop you're medications. Stop everything right now." So I did,
stopped it all. And in two days time I knew I was coming back.
(Here Tandy - two days after stopping the drugs - looked fine -
not disheveled, confused or depressed - suddenly the Organic Brain
Syndrome diagnosed earlier by Levin has disappeared. Perhaps,
after all, the problem wasn't the "atrophy and dirty white matter"
speculated by Levin earlier)
PETER JENNINGS: In December, Tandy began taking Compound Q again.
TANDY: I was disappointed when it wasn't like the miracle cure
right away, wasn't the magic bullet. But continued with it, I
think it's working. I see other friends of mine who that are doing
quite well on it.
(With the other two participants in the trial (Ron and Norm) now
dead, exactly what hype led this patient to believe that Compound
Q was the "miracle cure" or "magic bullet"?)
PETER JENNINGS: So is Compound Q effective against AIDS? There are
still no clear answers. The official FDA trial isn't over yet.
Delaney is planning another study of Compound Q, but this time
with official approval.
END OF PBS PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT ON COMPOUND Q
The following studies were available PRIOR to the Delaney Compound
Q study of 1989, yet this information was replaced by hype - many
patients believed that Compound Q was the "magic bullet". Clearly,
trichosanthin is a very strongly immunosuppressive agent that
strongly inhibits the production of IL-2 as well as the Cytotoxic
T Lymphocyte (CTL) lymphoproliferative response.
The single-minded fixation on CD4 counts in the Compound Q, AZT
and other drug trials proved to be a very dangerous clinical goal.
Obviously, Compound Q contributed to the immunosuppression of the
study participants, and for some of them, their death. The
following abstracts represent the type of information that Delaney
refers to as "laughable" in his March 28, 1996 sci.med.aids
posting.
Yeung HW; Poon SP; NG TB; Li WW.
Isolation and characterization of an immunosuppressive protein
from Trichosanthes kirilowii root tubers. Immunopharmacology and
Immunotoxicology, 1987, 9(1):25-46.
Abstract: An immunosuppressive protein was isolated from
Trichosanthes kirilowii root tubers by a procedure involving
acetone fractionation and ion exchange chromatography on CM-
Sepharose. Homogeneity of the protein was demonstrated in
immunoelectrophoresis, SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, gel
filtration, high performance liquid chromatography and a single
NH2-terminal sequence. The protein had a molecular weight of
26,000, aspartic acid as the NH2-terminal amino acid and no
cysteine or carbohydrates in its molecule. It inhibited ConA-
induced transformation in lymphocytes isolated from spleens of CBA
mice. The protein was also potent in inducing mid-term abortion in
mice.
Leung KN; Yeung HW; Leung SO. The immunomodulatory and antitumor
activities of trichosanthin-an abortifacient protein isolated from
tian-hua-fen (Trichosanthes kirilowii).
Asian Pacific Journal of Allergy and Immunology, 1986 Dec,
4(2):111-20.
Abstract: Trichosanthin, a basic protein purified from the root
tuber of Trichosanthes kirilowii, has been used effectively in
China to induce midterm abortion in humans. In this paper, we show
that trichosanthin at non-cytotoxic concentrations markedly
inhibited the mitogen-induced lymphoproliferative response and the
generation of a primary alloreactive CTL response in vitro.
Similarly, the production of IL-2 by Con A activated splenocytes
and the in vitro effector functions of macrophages were also
significantly suppressed. In contrast, the cytolytic activity of
CTL and NK cells was unimpaired. Moreover, the in vivo activation
of NK cells was not significantly altered by a single injection of
a non-toxic microgram amount of trichosanthin into mice. However,
other immune reactivities such as the induction of a DTH response
and the humoral antibody formation to SRBC were markedly
depressed. Our data suggest that trichosanthin is a potent
immunosuppressive protein that could affect humoral immunity and a
variety of cell-mediated processes. In addition, our preliminary
results show that this abortifacient protein could also inhibit
the growth of a murine malignant tumour (MBL-2), both in vivo and
in vitro.
--- end.