[Development of an experimental tuberculous process in the presence of immune deficiency and immunostimulation].
Shcherbakova. N M NM; Aleksandrova. A E AE; Morozov. V G VG; Podosinnikov. I S IS; Khavinson. V Kh VKh
Key Findings
- Thymectomy (removing the thymus) in young rats made later TB infections more severe.
- Treating thymectomized rats with thymalin lowered the number of medium and large lymphocytes in the blood but kept small lymphocytes stable.
- Thymalin restored normal migration activity of immune cells, matching that of healthy control rats.
Practical Outcomes
- Thymalin shows promise for boosting immune function in cases of severe immunodeficiency, at least in animal models. However, there are no human studies yet, so biohackers should treat this as early, exploratory evidence rather than a ready-to-use protocol.
Summary
In rats that had their thymus removed (which weakens the immune system), giving them the peptide thymalin helped their immune cells work better and reduced the severity of a TB infection, especially when the infection happened long after the thymus removal.
Abstract
The effects were studied of the degree of immunodeficiency produced by thymectomy of one-month-old rats on the course of experimental tuberculosis induced 3, 6 and 9 months after thymectomy. Subject to study was also the effect of immunodeficiency correction with thymalin on the tuberculous process. It was established that the lungs of thymectomized rats infected 9 months after the thymectomy were damaged more severely as compared with control or thymalin-treated animals. In thymectomized rats treated with thymalin, the absolute content of medium-sized and big lymphocytes in peripheral blood was found to be lower, the content of small lymphocytes being unchanged throughout all observation periods. The time course of migration activity (spontaneous and in response to PPD) in rats treated with thymalin corresponded with the time course in controls in contrast to thymectomized rats which did not receive the treatment. The results indicate that tuberculosis severity depends on the degree of immunodeficiency and that the functional properties of immunocompetent cells may be corrected with thymalin.
Study Information
pubmed
1981