A Japanese mushroom can help block HIV, the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and also can restrain breast cancer, a researcher in Kobe, western Japan says.
Prof. Hiroaki Namba of Kobe Women's College of Pharmacy, told the Kyodo News Service Thursday about trials conducted with AIDS patients in the United States and tests on mice. These tests showed that a polycsaccaride called glucan extracted from the mushroom, called maitake, activates helper T-cells, a type of white blood cell that attacks infected cells."It remains unknown why glucan from the maitake mushroom activates the body's immune functions," said Namba. "But given its effectiveness against symptoms of AIDS, it could be used for the treatment of AIDS patients together with anti-AIDS drugs."
AIDS destroys the immune syustem, leaving the body vulnerable to infections including tuberculosis, pneumonia and cancer, which are eventually fatal.
The Kobe researcher said he worked with two American doctors living in New York to conduct trials involving 26 AIDS patients, between the ages of 20 and 40, to see if glucan would activiate helper T-cells.
Powdered maitake and glucan tablets, weighing three grams each, were given to the 26 patients daily for two weeks in April 1992, Kyodo reported.
In 13 patients the number of T-cells increased, and they stopped declining in the other 13. In some cases the number of T-cells doubled.
A report on Namba's study will be presented at a meeting of the Japan Society of Pharmacy in Osaka, Kyodo said.