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Viscum album

About: Viscum album is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 935 publications have been published within this topic receiving 15841 citations. The topic is also known as: Mistletoe.


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Journal Article
TL;DR: The results encourage detailed elucidation of lectin action on various parts of the tumor defense system "in vitro" with the long range goal of achieving progress in the treatment of cancer through immunological strategies, exploring selective mediatory lectin-carbohydrate interactions.
Abstract: Proprietary extract of mistletoe (Iscador) that has federal approval for clinical application can exhibit immunomodulatory capacity. However, the nature of this responsible substance has still remained elusive. To validate the hypothesis that specific lectin-carbohydrate interactions at least participate in eliciting immunomodulation, the modulatory efficiency of the major β-galactoside-specific mistletoe lectin (ML I) from the clinically applied extract on selected immunological parameters was monitored “ in vivo ” in rabbits. Injections of nontoxic doses of the purified lectin or even only of its carbohydrate-binding subunit (0.25–1.0 ng/kg) into rabbits yielded significant increases in natural killer cytotoxicity, frequency of large granular lymphocytes, and phagocytic activity of granulocytes. In the clinically relevant situation, changes in these parameters were also determined in cancer patients after extract (Iscador) injection s.c. as well as i.v., emphasizing the potential relevance of the lectin. Comparative analyses of the changes in the selected parameters following injection of extract with normal lectin content as well as of extract, selectively depleted of lectin, into healthy volunteers corroborated this inference. Lectin depletion by affinity chromatography was highly specific and did not affect any other substance in the extract. Remarkably, contamination by endotoxin has been rigorously excluded in each applied specimen. These results encourage detailed elucidation of lectin action on various parts of the tumor defense system “ in vitro ” with the long range goal of achieving progress in the treatment of cancer through immunological strategies, exploring selective mediatory lectin-carbohydrate interactions.

303 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: These data provide an explanation for the increases in cellular parameters of the host defense system in vivo, which presents a further step toward their potentially beneficial clinical exploitation in standardized regimens.
Abstract: A β-galactoside-specific lectin from proprietary mistletoe extract, recently reported to exhibit immunomodulatory potency in vivo (T. Hajto, K. Hostanska, and H-J. Gabius, Cancer Res. 49: 4803–4808, 1989), induced increased secretion of tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 1, and interleukin 6 in cultures of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The enhancement of secretion, determined independently by bioassays and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based quantitation, was caused by selective protein-carbohydrate interaction, as revealed by the strict dependence on the presence of the carbohydrate-binding subunit of the lectin and the reduction of the effect of the lectin in the presence of the specific lectin-binding sugar as well as anti-lectin antibodies. Increased cytokine levels in serum of patients after injection of optimal lectin doses corroborated the in vitro results. Thus, these data provide an explanation for the increases in cellular parameters of the host defense system in vivo , which presents a further step toward their potentially beneficial clinical exploitation in standardized regimens.

294 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Three lectins have been isolated from an extract of mistletoe by affinity chromatography on partially hydrolysed Sepharose and human immunoglobulin- Separose and all three react with human erythrocytes without specificity for the A, B, and O blood groups.
Abstract: Three lectins have been isolated from an extract of mistletoe (Viscum album) by affinity chromatography on partially hydrolysed Sepharose and human immunoglobulin- Sepharose. The lectins differ in molecular weight and sugar specificity (lectin I, mol.wt. 11500, D-galactose-specific; lectin II, mol.wt. 60000, both D-galactose- and N-acetyl-D-galactosamine-specific; lectin III, mol. wt. 50000, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine-specific). All three lectins react with human erythrocytes without specificity for the A, B, and O blood groups. In contrast with abrin and ricin the mistletoe lectins cannot be divided into "toxins" and "haemagglutinins".

171 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2004-Flora
TL;DR: Viscum album is an evergreen, perennial, epiphytic, hemiparasitic shrub that lives on a wide range of woody plant species and is a known pathogen, a pharmaceutical plant, and a symbol in mythology.

159 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Gel filtration experiments on Sephacryl 200 indicated that, at low concentrations, viscumin occurs as a monomer and at higher concentrations as a dimer, and protection experiments with antiserum against viscumin indicated that the major part of the cytotoxic activity in mistletoe extracts is due to viscumin.

156 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202322
202268
202129
202024
201945
201822