The probiotic paradox: live and dead cells are biological response modifiers

The probiotic paradox: live and dead cells are biological response modifiers.

Probiotics are usually defined as products which contain viable non-pathogenic micro-organisms able to confer health benefits to the host. There are specific gastrointestinal effects of probiotics such as alleviating inflammatory bowel disease, reducing acute diarrhoea in children, inhibiting Salmonella and Helicobacter pylori, removing cholesterol, secreting enzymes and bacteriocins and immuno...

Biological response modifiers.

Biological response modifiers (BRMs) of current clinical interest may be divided into two categories: immunomodulating agents and colony stimulating factors (CSFs). The first are employed to potentiate the host defences towards the tumor but results have proved disappointing in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With regard to the second, the real dose increment which may be ascribed to CSFs i...

The TPP Is Dead, Long Live the TPP? A Response to Recent Commentaries

Biological response modifiers: the new immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy is divided into two overlapping categories, active and passive. The goal of active immunotherapy is the stimulation of host ant ¡tumorimmunity, either cellular or hu moral. This can be accomplished in a direct or specific fashion by using tumor vaccines to generate an immune response to tumor-associated antigens. Nonspecific antitumor immunity can be propagated by compounds such ...

Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Live and Dead