Prof. Marco Ruggiero on his work with GcMAF & probiotic yogurt

[Guest guest]

gcmaf available through probiotic formulation

Prof. Marco Ruggiero on his work with GcMAF & probiotic yogurt

Given my longstanding interest in intestinal health and gut flora and their

connection to " HIV/AIDS " , I was understandably excited when I received the news

of Prof. Marco Ruggiero's recent work involving GcMAF and a specially formulated

probiotic yogurt. And as you might imagine I had lots of questions. Ruggiero and

I exchanged a series of emails and what follows is the background on this line

of research, in Ruggiero's own words and published with his permission.

We at QA expect readers to have additional questions. Although this is a

moderated thread please post them and we will pass them on to Prof. Ruggiero. If

we have a few glitches at first—this is something new we're trying, after all—be

patient with us.—Tony Lance

We have been working on vitamin D and its receptor (vitamin D receptor, VDR) for

many years, identifying the VDR gene profiles associated with a number of

physiological and pathological conditions. Vitamin D, VDR and vitamin D binding

protein are called " vitamin D axis " . (You can find our papers here.) Therefore,

when Prof. Yamamoto in 2009 published his paper claiming that GcMAF [Gc

protein-derived macrophage activating factor] eradicated HIV without

antiretroviral therapy (ART), it was only natural for us to direct our attention

to GcMAF because it belongs to the vitamin D axis in that GcMAF derives from

vitamin D binding protein, also known as Gc-protein.

In addition to the basic science interest, we were also attracted by the

possibility to demonstrate in the laboratory that the famous words of Prof.

Montagnier— " …you will get rid of the virus in a few week if you have a good

immune system " —were true. Not that we doubted his words, but we knew that his

words were based upon his clinical observations and not on actual experiments

performed in the laboratory. The rationale is simple: if GcMAF administration

eradicates HIV infection as published by Prof. Yamamoto, since GcMAF is not an

antiretroviral and it should do no harm to the virus, this demonstrates that an

empowered immune system is able to eliminate HIV and prevent AIDS. This would in

turn demonstrate that immunodeficiency is the cause of chronic HIV infection and

not vice-versa. In addition, this approach, often referred to as

" immunotherapy " , would shift the focus from the fight against the virus to the

effort to re-establish, or empower, an immune system made deficient by a number

of different causes, probably different for each individual.

I often use the following example from my previous experience in lung cancer

research. Even though many lung cancer patients are heavy smokers, lung cancer

occurs also in non-smokers. Imagine you are an oncologist dealing with lung

cancer patients. It makes no sense and it is criminal to abstain from using

available anti-cancer therapeutic strategies (surgery, radio- or chemotherapy)

and instead have all the lung cancer patients attend courses or counseling to

stop smoking. This is what happens with AIDS; instead of focusing on the real

disease, immunodeficiency, they try to fight the virus that putatively causes

it, paying the high price of severe side effects, among which is drug-induced

immunodeficiency, while at the same time ignoring the immune system without

trying to reinforce it.

Because of these considerations, we thought that immunotherapy with GcMAF would

be a good object of study. There was also another consideration. AIDS diagnosis

and the decision to initiate ART are based on CD4 cell count. Therefore, we

reasoned, if we are able to keep them high, HIV+ people, in addition to staying

healthy, will avoid prescription of ART and will not be classified as having

AIDS.

We had just recently read a very interesting article by Reid et al. (quoted in

our IAS2011 presentation) where he demonstrated that a probiotic yogurt was able

to rise CD4 to an extent comparable to that of ART, obviously without side

effects and practically at no cost. In fact, it was produced by local women in

low-income communities in Tanzania. In other words, locally-produced probiotic

yogurt produced the same effects of ART. Or, if you prefer, AIDS in Africa can

be defeated at no cost and with no side effects.

Reid et al. did not provide a molecular mechanism underlying the observed

effects on CD4 cell count. We thought that bacteria contained in their probiotic

yogurt could have converted some Gc-protein that is present in low concentration

in milk into active GcMAF. Thus, administration of Reid's probiotic yogurt might

have mimicked Yamamoto's administration of GcMAF.

Based on these premises, we then studied a way to have certain strains of

bacteria convert high concentration of Gc-protein into GcMAF and we developed

MAF 3 14. This was not easy at all and the number 314 indicates the number of

different combinations/experiments we had to perform before obtaining the right

conditions. This is definitely not something that you could perform in your home

kitchen! Then, we thought that it could have been cooler to call it 3 14

mimicking the p number.

We also took advantage of the deep knowledge of human anatomy and histology of

Prof. Stefania Pacini who is professor of human anatomy at the Faculty of

Medicine of the University of Firenze. In fact, she let us know that there was

no need to inject MAF 3 14 (an impossible task) if we wished to stimulate the

immune system. The existence of the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT)

that comprises macrophages is now widely recognized and activated macrophages

can re-circulate between mucosas, blood, tissues, and back to mucosas. At this

point the only remaining obstacle was the acid environment of the stomach that

could have digested the GcMAF presented in MAF 3 14. This problem also was

solved by Prof. Pacini's knowledge of human anatomy. In fact, in the Waldeyer's

tonsilar ring there is an abundance of macrophages that can be directly

stimulated by the GcMAF present in MAF 3 14. Not only that, we developed a way

to have most MAF 3 14 pass intact the gastric environment and arrive intact (for

the most part) in the lower intestine where the gut microbiota (now conceived as

a virtual organ) exerts its actions.

In fact, MAF 3 14 is not only a GcMAF-enriched yogurt. Based on Reid's

publications and successes, MAF 3 14 was developed to re-establish a healthy gut

microbiota, very similar to that of newborn mammals. A sort of reset of the gut

microbiota. Again, this achievement was not easy. Please consider that we had to

do more than two experiments a day in a fully equipped and well funded

laboratory. We often worked 14 hours a day with a team of about 10 researchers;

you can see some of them in the home page of www.marcoruggiero.org. Prof. Pacini

is the third from the left, standing.

At that point, we began experimenting on ourselves as true scientists of the old

days used to do. (I wonder how many advocates of ART have experienced those

drugs on themselves.) You can see the results of this " trial " in IAS2011.

Immediately thereafter, we gave MAF 3 14 to a couple of friends with different

pathologic conditions and we are now monitoring their situation. By the way, MAF

3 14 has a good taste and people who tried it found it good. We are collecting a

series of unexpected positive side-effects that we believe are due to the lucky

combination of immune stimulation and re-establishment of a healthy gut

microbiota. Many of these effects are just sensations difficult to quantify in

scientific terms, but they are nevertheless very welcomed by those experiencing

them.

I conclude, for the moment, letting you know that we are about to move to the

U.S. to perform a larger scale trial. I cannot give at the moment more details

about this. If everything works as we hope and believe, MAF 3 14 should be

available for consumption in the coming weeks.—Prof. Marco Ruggiero