VITAMIN-E AND RESVERATROL REPLICATE HCV

[pacman1372]

hello to all and hope my post finds u all in better health and spirit .
I am 38 years old and got infected with hcv 3 years ago ,  i went through the regular tx and relapsed within 2 weeks of completeing ( geno 1a ), anyway i now await the new treatments that are suppose to come out in the next year or two and will decide then as to what needs to be done  .

(i did post once before about the same topic .. but got no feedback except from a genteleman named bill -  thanks bill .)

the only reason i post is to share my story and make others aware of the harm of  "vit e and resveratrol" .
well here we go again ....

last year in december all m liver enzimes were normal ie: ast 30 alt 30 , but i was still hcv + with a viral load of 9000 .
in feburary this year i started feeling a bit weak and decided that juiceing may be a good idea , i started juicing with strawberries , black and green grapes , carrots , pomegranade , and some lemon .
i was also having my regular supplements that include - milk thistle , vit b / c / and a multi vit withought  iron .
after a few days of juicing and feeeling mentally good  i added vitamin e to my supplement list - reading that it was a great anti-oxidant .

well i was due for a lft in march and my report came back with ast= 62 and alt 161 . i continued with the juice and the vit e not realinzing that they could be the culprit .

after 2 weeks of checking again my ast was 106 and alt 320 ... and thereafter another week they went up to ast- 116 and alt = 400 , i paniced and though what is it... what is it ..... here im trying to do everything thats good for my body and liver but whats going on .... then thanx to the mystic law of the universe i tumbeled upon this study .

Quote from the article.

"To date, only a limited number of studies have reported finding an influence of ordinary nutrients on hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA replication. However, the effects of other nutrients on HCV RNA replication remain largely unknown.

Here, using this OR6 assay system, we comprehensively examined 46 nutrients from four nutrient groups: vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, and salts. We found that three nutrients-beta-carotene, vitamin D(2), and linoleic acid-inhibited HCV RNA replication and that their combination caused additive and/or synergistic effects on HCV RNA replication. In addition, combined treatment with each of the three nutrients and interferon alpha or beta or fluvastatin inhibited HCV RNA replication in an additive manner, while combined treatment with cyclosporine synergistically inhibited HCV RNA replication. In contrast, we found that vitamin E enhanced HCV RNA replication and negated the effects of the three anti-HCV nutrients and cyclosporine but not those of interferon or fluvastatin. These results will provide useful information for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C patients who also take anti-HCV nutrients as an adjunctive therapy in combination with interferon. In conclusion, among the ordinary nutrients tested, beta-carotene, vitamin D(2), and linoleic acid possessed anti-HCV activity in a cell culture system, and these nutrients are therefore considered to be potential candidates for enhancing the effects of interferon therapy.".

link for the above study  - http://aac.asm.org/cgi/content/short/51/6/2016  

also then i did a little more reading and found this ...

AIM: To elucidate the effect of antioxidants, resveratrol (RVT) and astaxanthin (AXN), on hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication. METHODS: We investigated the effect of recent popular antioxidant supplements on replication of the HCV replicon system OR6. RVT is a strong antioxidant and a kind of polyphenol that inhibits replication of various viruses. AXN is also a strong antioxidant. The replication of HCV RNA was assessed by the luciferase reporter assay. An additive effect of antioxidants on antiviral effects of interferon (IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) was investigated. RESULTS: This is the first report to investigate the effect of RVT and AXN on HCV replication. In contrast to other reported viruses, RVT significantly enhanced HCV RNA replication. Vitamin E also enhanced HCV RNA replication as reported previously, although AXN did not affect replication. IFN and RBV significantly reduced HCV RNA replication, but these effects were dose-dependently hampered and attenuated by the addition of RVT. AXN did not affect antiviral effects of IFN or RBV. CONCLUSION: These results suggested that RVT is not suitable as an antioxidant therapy for chronic hepatitis.

heres the link for the above study - http://www.myhealthfulworld.com/content/an-antioxidant-resveratrol-significantly-enhanced-replication-hepatitis-c-virus

i since have completely stopped taking the vit e and the juice . please note that grapes , peanuts , strawberries and pomegranade all contain high amounts of resvetrol .
I also stopped taking the multivitamin withough iron as it contained vit e ...
i have discussed this topic with a few friends but they dont seem to think resvetrol and vit e can do any harm !!! i wonder !!
but the same hcv community  will come down ure throat if u say u had a beer or a steak .... (  i dont drink or eat red meat anymore ) saying that alcohol replicates hcv ... and iron is bad .. u shouldnt even eat spinich ....
well i would also like to add that 2 weeks of no juice and vit e .... and milk thistle 2 times a day have bought my ast from 116 to 96 , and alt from 400 to 275 .

PLEASE MY FRIENDS  be carefull of what u eat and drink when suffering from hcv ... saying that " its natural " dosent mean its good for us ...  we have a specific disease ....  mud is natural too - would we eat it !!!
people without liver disease can eat and drink all that they want ..including mud -;) ..... but not us ,

i may be wrong and do welcome ure inputs .

also before i leave - i need to ask u all a small question .

as i said earlier - i was infected (  not diagnosed ) with hcv 3 years ago , do i need to get a live biopsy done !!! i dont drink or eat red meat and oily food , my ultra sound shows no enlargement ... but i am tired and have fatgue all the time ....  yes my liver enzimes are high .. but im pretty sure that the reason behind that is the resveratrol and the vit e tablets which i have stopped taking now .  .

thanking u and wishing u all well - await ure inputs regarding the bx .. and hope u all find the above studies helpfull.

pacman

  

[RobertBeWell]

I've found over and over in life that the best thing is moderation. If you just think about how everything in the universe works, left alone, it will seek balance. Extremes are quickly eliminated. This is just the natural order of things.

I'm pretty sure one can't go wrong following this same advice in all areas of your life, including what you ingest.

[Rockerforlife]

its not wrong information,its misinformation the call it.....not a lie or wrong,just mis leading,kind a a white lie in disguise

[dointime]

Many thanks for weighing in on this.  I wrote my last entry before reading yours.  As you can see, I wasn't able to arrive at a realistic conclusion by myself so your intervention has been very helpful.

dointime  

[dointime]

I found this link which contains a good discussion:
http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/16/184.pdf

What I make of it is that HR may have been right about resveratrol's anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties, however this study does indicate that resveratrol enhances hcv replication.  The study makes a point of saying not to use resveratrol along with ifn & riba as it could negate their antiviral effects, which is fair enough.

But for those people not on tx, if resveratrol does indeed protect the liver then who cares about a high viral load.  But does it in fact?  The study says there is still a debate about it's liver protecting properties.

So, insufficient information.  I'll have to mull it over whether I should quit taking it after this.

dointime  

[Rockerforlife]

see..i knew it,,,scewed reports?

[Hepatitis Researcher]

Best thing to actually rread the above paper, it is free in full text to everyone.  This paper studies the replication of an artificial HCV construct on cultured hepatocytes, in the presence of various concentrations of Resveratrol. it proves nicely that even high doses of RSV are unlikely to have any effect on HCV replication in vivo in man.  How so?

On page 187 Fig 2 you will see the effect of increasing micromols of RSV on fold replication of the HCV construct, readout by the luciferase assay.
On page 188 similarlily in fig 4 the effect on the subgenomic replicon cells. RSV in micromols/Liter vs fold replication enhancement. Good work, we assume.
Now there are a few papers that have actually measured, in a reliable well documented HPLC fashion,  the achieved RSV concentration in the blood of human subjects after exposure to 250 and 500mg of 99% transResveratrol. In the paper in the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition , published ahead of print March 31st 2010 you find on the forth page in fig 2 the graph of plasma concentrations of RSV as a function of time in these humans to be dose dependent and having for 500mg (quite a high dose!) found the peak concentration of original RSV at 90min after dosing to be 14.4 nanograms/ml or 14.4 micrograms/liter. Knowing the molecular weight of RSV to be 228g/Mol this translates into 14.4/228 micromolar max achievable concentration ,so approx 0.06 micromolar.

If you place this result in the almost linear dependence of replication enhancement foldness of the above paper (see fig 2 AND 4) you will see that the enhancement at this in vivo micromolarity is somewhere between 1 and 5% of starting value, a totally irrelevant phenomenon, if we take everything at face value. In summary, if we trust both papers, there should be no relevant influence by RSV on HCV replication in vivo in man by doses as high as 500mg.

These papers have to be studies in fine details to arrive at realistic conclusions.