Gracilistylus Root and immune suppression

[Mya Symons]

This looks like an interesting herb and it is easy to come by. It suppresses Cytotoxic T-Cells

and B-Cells without having much of an effect on natural killer cells. Right now my immune

system is back to attacking my thyroid and I am debating taking a chance on this. Anybody

think it might work or not??

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Keywords:​

• Chinese medicinal herb;
• T cell;
• B cell;
• monocyte;
• natural killer cell

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Jump to…​

Abstract
We studied the effect of a Chinese medicinal herb, Acanthopanax gracilistylus, extract (AGE), on human lymphocytes in vitro. AGE markedly suppressed the proliferative responses of human peripheral blood lymphocytes stimulated with mitogens concanavalin A (Con A) and Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I (SAC). Both T cell and B cell activities—production of interferon-gamma and immunoglobulin—were suppressed by AGE. The mechanism of AGE-induced suppression of lymphocytes is to arrest the cell cycle at the G0/G1 stage without a direct cytotoxic effect. AGE also suppressed the alloantigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte response. However, natural killer cell activity was less sensitive to the suppressive activity of AGE. In contrast, AGE markedly enhanced monocyte function to produce cytokines. These activities of AGE were associated with a 60-kD protein which was sensitive to treatment with pronase E, but not with NaIO4. These results suggest that AGE has an immunomodulating activity on human lymphocytes and its properties could be clinically applied in the treatment of several diseases such as autoimmune and allergic diseases.

 

[Ema]

I think herbs are interesting but can be complicated to use. In vitro studies are often not congruent with how something will work in the body. Plus it is hard to determine the dosage that was used in the study.

A good Chinese medicine practitioner might be better able to help you sort out whether or not this would be helpful for autoimmune thyroiditis. I don't see it mentioned in any of the basic texts I have - more for arthritis. Plus wikipedia says there are significant side effects though they do not bother to tell us what those might actually be.

If you're having a Hashi's flare and it is causing you symptoms, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just take thyroid hormones? This would stop the attack and possibly preserve function of the thyroid. I would also consider going gluten free as gluten is well known to cross react with thyroid antibodies.

Ema

 

[SOC]

Yikes! I wouldn't want to try that without extensive immune testing. Not all of us have low NK cell function; some of us have other immune dysfunctions. I'm one who has low cytotoxic T-cells. If I didn't know that and took gracilistylus root, I imagine I'd be in big trouble, I imagine.

The immune system is way too complex for me to risk messing with it without the supervision of an immunologist.