V.A. Savinov
Moscow Alliance of Hirudotherapeutists.
Autoblood is obtained from medicinal leech by means of a syringe like it is done in cases of venipuncture, and is administered intracutaneously, subcutaneously, as well as intravenously with a therapeutic purpose. In so doing, the patient’s body receives large amounts of the vegetating in the leach intestine symbiotic bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila which is nonanamnestic antigen for humans and is therefore used with the purpose of active nonspecific (adjuvant) immunotherapy. For intradermal administration, 0.5 ml of autoblood is diluted in 5.0 ml of normal saline and 0.1 ml of the obtained mixture is injected intradermally in the volar surface of the forearm. A delayed-type skin hypersensitivity reaction develops within 24 — 48 hours in the place of injection with a characteristic lymphocytic-macrophageal infiltrate. Subcutaneously, 0.5 ml of the native, undiluted autoblood is injected. From six to ten hours after, there appear fever and hyperthermia up to 41 ºC, lasting 5 — 6 hours, which should be considered as the protecting reaction of the body against the bacterial aggression. In cases of intradermal administration of autoblood, no general systemic reactions are noted, probably, because all the bacterial bodies are killed resulting from the immune attack by macrophages and lymphocytes. Apparently, therapeutic effect of this methodology is provided not only by the properties of the classic haemotherapy, but by the cascade of immunological reactions developing in the body in response to administration of a heterologous antigen, which is the symbiotic bacterium.
Hirudoautohaemotherapy is efficient in systemic lesions — big collagenoses, psoriasis, thrombotic and tumorous diseases and other conditions related to cell immunodeficiency.
During the last decade, autoblood from medicinal leech was used for treating with favourable outcomes a total of 23 patients with prostatic cancer, 19 patients with renal cell carcinoma, 16 patients with urinary bladder cancer, 14 female patients with malignant tumours of the mammary glands, 5 people with lymphogranulomatosis, and 2 with colorectal cancer.
Bacterial contamination is used with a therapeutic purpose during long time as the BCG- and malaria-therapy. Aeromonas-therapy possesses a series of advantages over the mentioned methods, which is explained by its non-pathogenicity in relation to the human being, as well as by the fact that the leech’s symbiotic bacterium is nonanamnestic antigen, for people do not usually come across it in the natural conditions during their life.
W. Colley /1893/ was the first to pay attention to the fact that people with malignant tumours and suffering from infectious diseases live longer. By the present day, numerous data have accumulated concerning antiblastic action of attenuated microbial strains administered intravenously. The majority of works are dedicated to Corynebacterium parvum which stimulates various immunological processes: enhancing the delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction, increasing synthesis of antibodies, prolonging the state of the immunological memory, increasing production of colony-forming cells of the bone marrow. B. Halpern /1975/ reported the data on the highest antiblastic action of intraperitoneal administration of C. parvum two days prior to inoculation of tumour cells in mice. Also effective was intravenous administration of C. parvum, but not subcutaneous. Also noted was a decrease in the metastatic dissemination. The mechanism of the antiblastic action of C. parvum consists in activation of the macrophages exerting a cytotoxic effect of tumour cells. Suit N.D. et al. /1978/ showed that intravenous administration of C. parvum to mice with transplants of tumours with the diameter of 5 mm cured 40 of 90 animals.
Intravenous infusions of C. parvum in children under 16 years with lymphoid leukaemia /Lanksford J. et al., 1979/, to patients with removed rectal tumour /Gill P.G. et al., 1980/, to patients with inoperable lung cancer, excluding oat-cell forms /Moayeri H., 1979/ were accompanied by persistently positive results.
There are many reports on successful treatment of oncological patients with combinations of microbial strains administered intravenously — C. parvum, BCG, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, B. pertussis, and other microbial antigens /Nauts H.C., 1975; Mathe G., 1980; Oshimi K. et al., 1980; Purnell D.M. et al., 1979; Seshadri M., Poduval T.B., 1980/.
Alexander P. et al. /1981/ reported experimental data that in the focus of the delayed-type hypersensitivity induced by microbial antigens, not associated with the tumour, there take place death of a part of tumour cells. The authors explained this effect by the action of a lymphokine /supposedly lymphotoxin/ which is released in interaction of T-lymphocytes with specific antigens. Landsberger A. /1980/ underlined that the necessary prerequisite for using immunotherapy is the presence of the prepared antitumour defence, including sensibilised T-lymphocytes, tissular basophiles, macrophages, interferon, antigen-reactive B-lymphocytes and indicates that most frequently used with this purpose BCG, C. parvum, levamisole, as well as a combination of foetal xenogenic tissues, heparin and polyglucose stimulate regeneration of tissues, especially lymphatic.
Amongst the advantages of the Aeromonas-therapy over other cultures of microorganisms used with the therapeutic purpose, one should consider nonanamnestic nature of the leech’s symbiotic bacterium, which frees the patient from the risk of complications and side reactions, for example, inherent to the BCG-therapy, when the latter is used in people infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as well as the availability of the method, because Aeromonas hydrophila has been undergoing passaging in the leech, like in a biological container, for millions of years, and one does not have to go far away to fetch it, for the strains of the symbiotic bacterium are contained in the leech’s intestine, wherefrom directly in the period of the therapeutic session one can easily obtain this bacterial antigen processed with the leech’s enzymes and energy, which constitutes yet another factor witnessing in favour of the Aeromonas-therapy. It is the biologically active compounds, produced by the leech, and the leech’s energy restoring the function of the energy centres when the leech is applied to the area of chakras /Savinov V., 2001/, that, apparently, participate in reconstruction of the disordered interrelationships of the neuroendocrine system, immunity, haemostasis and endothelium, as the triggering moment of autonomisation of the focus of malignant growth in the whole organism /V.A. Savinov, 1994; Savinov V. Tzvetkova P., 2000/, thus creating favourable conditions for active non-specific /adjuvant/ immunotherapy, preformed with the help of Aeromonas hydrophila.
Literature
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