Oxygen breathing may be a cheaper and safer alternative to exogenous erythropoietin (EPO) (wow !!!)

[Guest guest]

Med Hypotheses. 2007;69(6):1200-4. Epub 2007 May 9.

Oxygen breathing may be a cheaper and safer alternative to

exogenous erythropoietin (EPO).

Burk R.

Burk Labs, 9414 168th Place NE, Redmond, WA 98052, USA.

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a glycoprotein hormone produced by renal

tissue in response to hypoxia; EPO functions as a cytokine to

precursor cells produced by the bone marrow, stimulating red blood

cell production. Erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) are

manufactured molecules designed to mimic the ability of endogenous EPO

to bind to EPO receptors and increase red blood cell production. To

achieve desired dosing schedules and avoid the need for blood

transfusions, oncologists have become increasingly reliant on ESAs to

counter the anemia often experienced during chemotherapy. In recent

years, significant concerns have been raised about the safety of ESAs,

including the possibility of increased cardiovascular events and even

increased tumor growth and accelerated mortality in cancer patients.

ESAs also contribute significantly to the expense of chemotherapy,

rendering them unavailable to some patients and available to others

only upon achieving insurance-mandated levels of anemia. A recently

discovered " normobaric oxygen paradox " demonstrates that renal tissue

can be stimulated to increase EPO production via a simple pattern of

oxygen breathing at normal atmospheric pressures. This leads directly

to the hypothesis that oxygen breathing may provide chemotherapy

patients with a convenient and inexpensive alternative to ESAs.

Stimulating endogenous EPO production eliminates the small risk of

immune system reaction associated with ESAs. Further, the endogenous

physiological EPO doses provided by this method may be safer, in terms

of cancer mortality, than the exogenous pharmacological doses inherent

in ESA administration. A single patient test case is presented to

support the hypothesis that normobaric oxygen breathing can be an

effective replacement for ESAs in treating chemotherapy-induced

anemia. In this case, a stage III breast cancer patient undergoing

dose-dense AC+T chemotherapy obtained a clear response equivalent to

ESA treatment by using a pattern of simple oxygen breathing.

PMID: 17493766 [PubMed - in process]

Also, did I post this the other day? I didn't see it, maybe I forgot

to... (unrelated)

J Antibiot (Tokyo). 1993 Dec;46(12):1788-98.Links

Erratum in:

J Antibiot (Tokyo) 1994 Feb;47(2):C-1.

FR901459, a novel immunosuppressant isolated from Stachybotrys

chartarum No. 19392. Taxonomy of the producing organism, fermentation,

isolation, physico-chemical properties and biological activities.

Sakamoto K, Tsujii E, Miyauchi M, Nakanishi T, Yamashita M,

Shigematsu N, Tada T, Izumi S, Okuhara M.

Exploratory Research Laboratories, Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co.,

Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan.

FR901459, a novel immunosuppressant, has been isolated from the

fermentation broth of Stachybotrys chartarum No. 19392. The molecular

formula of FR901459 was determined as C62H111N11O13. FR901459 was

found to be a member of the cyclosporin family. However, it is

structurally distinct from any other cyclosporins discovered so far,

in that Leu is present at position 5 instead of Val. FR901459 was

capable of prolonging the survival time of skin allografts in rats

with one third the potency of cyclosporin A.

PMID: 8294235 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]