To Barb on her return, and to others, etc

[Guest guest]

I looked up riamet which was not available when Barb was takign her

arthemos but essentially similar.

It stops malaria parasites from the toxic heme, they produce

haeomzoin. However I found this on the net:

Usually MACS Technology is based on the use of MACS MicroBeads, MACS

Columns and MACS Separators. MACS MicroBeads are superparamagnetic

particles that are coupled to highly specific monoclonal antibodies.

They are used to magnetically label the target cell population.

Plasmodium falciparum infected red blood cells can be isolated

without any further labeling by magnetic particles just due to the

high amount of intracellular haemozoin, a magnetizable metabolism

product of plasmodia which digest haemoglobin. However, regarding

Babesia I found the following information: Babesiae (1) form tetrads

( " Maltese cross " ), (2) do not have haemozoin pigments within the

affected red blood cells, and (3) have extracellular merozoites.

Babesia is thought to pinocytose nutrients rather than degrade

haemoglobin in bulk. Because of this difference between Plasmodium

and Babesia infected erythrocytes with respect to intracellular

haemozoin it appears unlikely that Babesia infected erythrocytes can

be isolated by MACS without any further labeling, but we have never

tested this. I do not know whether there is any other magnetizable

metabolism product generated by Babesia which is sufficient for a

MACS separation (without further labeling with MicroBeads).

---

So does this mean that haemozoin is significant in babs in which

case, arthemeter/riamet might not be that effective. Barba has

speculated she may have had malaria.

I haven't read enough to know if the above is a foolish question, I

may read some more and find out.

[Guest guest]

That is damn interesting. I never learned the fine points of these

compounds effects so I dont know the answer. There does seem to be

substantial testimony for effect from artemisinin (which is

metabolized by the human - like B-artemether but much less robustly -

to the highly active dihydroartemsinin or DHA). But who knows, could

it all be wrong?

Heres a post from Rich van K on CFS-exp which will help:

Message 77989

From: " rvankonynen " <richvank@...>

Date: Wed Jun 8, 2005 5:18 pm

Subject: Re: Artemisia annua- Question for users rvankonynen

Hi, Barb.

The herb Artemisia annua contains the active ingredient artemisinin.

The chemical structure of artemisinin contains a peroxide. When

artemisinin is taken orally, it is absorbed in the gut, transported

to the liver via the portal vein, and is converted by the CYP450

enzyme system in the liver cells to the active form

dihydroartemisinin.

As I understand it, this substance does not produce oxidizing free

radicals unless it encounters free (unbound) ferrous iron. This

catalyzes a reaction that breaks the endoperoxide bridge in the

molecule, and then a Fenton-type reaction involving the free ferrous

iron proceeds to generate oxidizing free radicals.

This substance is effective in malaria because in this disease the

Plasmodium protozoa enter the red blood cells and attack the

hemoglobin molecules in order to get the iron to use for their own

purposes. There is thus a high concentration of free ferrous iron

in their vicinity, and that causes the generation of oxidizing free

radicals, which kills the Plasmodium.

This effect has also been found to occur in cancer cells, because

they also accumulate free ferrous iron.

In a normal human body, iron is not allowed to be present in the

free ferrous state, but is bound to molecules such as ferritin and

tranferrin. I think this explains the relatively low toxicity of

artemisinin to normal cells.

Rich

> I looked up riamet which was not available when Barb was takign her

> arthemos but essentially similar.

>

> It stops malaria parasites from the toxic heme, they produce

> haeomzoin. However I found this on the net:

>

> Usually MACS Technology is based on the use of MACS MicroBeads,

MACS

> Columns and MACS Separators. MACS MicroBeads are superparamagnetic

> particles that are coupled to highly specific monoclonal

antibodies.

> They are used to magnetically label the target cell population.

> Plasmodium falciparum infected red blood cells can be isolated

> without any further labeling by magnetic particles just due to the

> high amount of intracellular haemozoin, a magnetizable metabolism

> product of plasmodia which digest haemoglobin. However, regarding

> Babesia I found the following information: Babesiae (1) form

tetrads

> ( " Maltese cross " ), (2) do not have haemozoin pigments within the

> affected red blood cells, and (3) have extracellular merozoites.

> Babesia is thought to pinocytose nutrients rather than degrade

> haemoglobin in bulk. Because of this difference between Plasmodium

> and Babesia infected erythrocytes with respect to intracellular

> haemozoin it appears unlikely that Babesia infected erythrocytes

can

> be isolated by MACS without any further labeling, but we have never

> tested this. I do not know whether there is any other magnetizable

> metabolism product generated by Babesia which is sufficient for a

> MACS separation (without further labeling with MicroBeads).

> ---

> So does this mean that haemozoin is significant in babs in which

> case, arthemeter/riamet might not be that effective. Barba has

> speculated she may have had malaria.

>

> I haven't read enough to know if the above is a foolish question, I

> may read some more and find out.