Transfer Factor Review

Beyond antibiotics — Using transfer factors to help defeat common ailments and orphaned diseases, prevent pandemics and boost general health by strengthening the immune system. Too good to be true?

Aaron White, PhD

We are coming to the end of a golden era in medicine, one in which we can count on antibiotics to cure nasty bacterial infections and outbreaks of all but a few potentially deadly viruses have been contained. Unfortunately, drug resistant strains of bacteria have been springing up faster than you can say “gonorrhea” and everyone agrees that viral pandemics are just a matter of time. It is becoming clear that we have underestimated the role of viruses, and viral-like forms of bacteria (mycoplasma), in everything from cancer to chronic joint pain. We have also underestimated the importance of a healthy immune system in preventing and beating current and emerging threats. In a way, this is good news, as real progress can now begin. While drug company researchers work on novel drugs to sell, one of our best hopes for the future of disease treatment and prevention might rest in a discovery made more than 50 years ago – something called transfer factors. Transfer factors are short strands of amino acids and RNA that can tell newly born immune cells what to go after, how to do it, and when to stop. Researchers have figured out how to make custom transfer factors for essentially any disease with an identifiable pathogen. They can be used to treat patients infected with anything from herpes to hepatitis and protect those yet to be exposed. In this review, we will discuss the discovery of transfer factors, research regarding their potential value in disease treatment and prevention, and examine unanswered questions regarding how and when to use them.

he immune system consists of a powerful army of cells that wander around our bodies and brains, looking for potentially disease-causing visitors, whether they are viruses, bacteria, fungi,

or parasites. Once found, these unwanted guests are destroyed or corralled so that the harm they cause is minimized. Cells that detect foreign invaders either gobble them up or send for backup.

ScienceSaysMonthly reviews of emerging topics in science and medicine

December, 2006

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A brief history of disease treatment from the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO)

In a fantastic overview of disease causing microbes and how they have been treated across the ages, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Diector-General of the WHO, offers the following timeline:

2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root 1000 A.D. – That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer. 1850 A.D. – That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion. 1920 A.D. – That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill. 1945 A.D. – That pill is ineffective. Here, take this penicillin. 1955 A.D. – Oops....bugs mutated. Here, take this tetracycline. 1960-1999 – 39 more "oops"...Here, take this more powerful antibiotic. 2000 A.D. – The bugs have won! Here, eat this root.

Overcoming Antimicrobial Resistance World Health Report on Infectious Diseases 2000, A Message From the Director-General, World Health Organization. Accessed December 13, 2006. [Available Here]

Version 3 — December 23, 2006

Other cells move to the area to help wage war against them. Newly created immune system cells are recruited as soldiers in the wars. They are given instructions about what to go after, how to recognize it, how to defeat it, and when to stop. This story plays itself out everyday inside of our bodies. We only become aware of the battles once they get ferocious enough to affect how we think and feel.

The discovery of antibiotics and transfer factor

Several very important discoveries regarding immune system functioning and health have been made in the past 100 years. In general, the emphasis has rested on finding substances that can directly attack invaders, as is the case with antibiotics and many antiviral drugs. Less emphasis has been placed on ways to help the individual’s own immune system deal with foreign threats. Let’s begin by looking at two such important discoveries – antibiotics and transfer factors – and discuss how these discoveries have affected the way that we deal with disease, and the roles they will likely play in the future of medicine.

In 1928, in a laboratory in London, Alexander Fleming observed that a common species of mold known as Penicillium was capable of killing bacteria in Petri dishes. By all accounts, Dr. Fleming didn’t intend to discover an antibiotic. He returned to his lab after some time away and found that the bacteria he was culturing didn’t grow within a narrow zone around the fringes of a pesky mold that contaminated his samples. He probably wasn’t the first to observe this phenomenon, but he was the first to pursue an understanding of just how the mold prevented bacterial growth. Dr. Fleming identified the component of the mold with antibacterial properties and labeled it, “penicillin”. It would be another 15 years – during the 1940s --before researchers realized the full potential of penicillin and figured out how to turn Dr. Fleming’s discovery into a mass producible treatment for disease. And so began an era in which rates of death due to minor infections and communicable bacteria plummeted.

In 1949, at a time when penicillin and the sulfa drugs, antibiotics developed in Germany, were gaining reputations as life savers, a tuberculosis researcher named Dr. H Sherwood Lawrence made another important discovery in disease treatment. He extracted intracellular fluid from white blood cells in patients who had been exposed to tuberculosis (TB). He then injected the contents of these cells into non-exposed patients. In doing so, he protected them from contracting TB. He called the mystery components “transfer factor”, as they somehow transferred immunity from one patient to the next.

Unfortunately, viruses are here to stay

Norovirus suspected in Olive Garden illnesses

Associated PressPublished December 19, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS -- A norovirus may have caused hun-dreds of people to become sick last week after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant, a health official said Mon-day…

Stool samples from three restaurant employees and one patron tested positive for a norovirus, which can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, he said…

Outbreaks of noroviruses have taken place in restau-rants, cruise ships and other places where people eat food handled by others, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PAGE 2ScienceSays — Transfer factors in disease treatment

At the time that transfer factors were discovered our understanding of disease states was quite limited and the ability to extract transfer factors for use in treatment beyond single cases was not available. The miraculous effects of antibiotics were becoming widely known at the time and they took center stage. Fifty years later, with improvements in our understanding of disease states and vast improvements in

technology, transfer factors have now emerged on the scene as potentially powerful weapons against disease – including diseases resistant to, or untouchable by, antibiotics.

Immunologists suspect that transfer factors are small chains of amino acids and bits of RNA that contain the instructions that the immune system uses to recognize and fight foreign invaders and cancer cells. As new immune cells are born, they absorb transfer factors and read them like notes left by immune cells before them. Each time a person becomes ill and their immune system learns how to battle a pathogen, transfer factors are created and are used the next time around to make the battle against the pathogen more efficient.

Research on transfer factors

In the last half-century, dozens of studies have examined the ability of transfer factors to treat and prevent diseases. Many of them have been wildly successful while others have failed miserably. At present, there is simply too little information to determine why transfer factors have worked in some cases and not others. Until recently, researchers interested in assessing the effectiveness of transfer factors utilized a strategy similar to that utilized by Dr. Lawrence. Specifically, white blood cells from a healthy host, preferably one that had been exposed to the pathogen of interest, were harvested and injected into the target patient following some type of weekly, biweekly, or monthly schedule. It remains unclear to this day what dosing regimen would be optimal, or even effective, when things are done this way. Hopefully, these issues will be resolved by future research.

Ingenious technological advances have rendered the use of human white blood cells on a study-by-study basis unnecessary. This should allow for rapid advances in the development of standardized protocols for utilizing transfer factors in disease

If transfer factors have that much potential in medicine, why haven’t we heard more about them?

A search of the World Health Organization website on December 13, 2006, for the term “transfer factor” revealed zero accurate hits. A few tidbits on transfer factors can be found on the National Institutes of Health website. If transfer factors really have poten-tial to treat and prevent diseases, then why no men-tion of them on the websites of these powerful organi-zations? Medical dogma is slow to change. Transfer factors were discovered at a time when the magic of antibiotics was just being realized (late 1940s). Bacte-ria, and the effects of antibiotics against them, are easy to see. Viral ailments are much harder to under-stand. This, combined with the fact that the technol-ogy for extracting transfer factors for use in medicine beyond a case by case basis wasn’t available, led to a quiet celebration for their discovery. That is, until recently. Researchers have since figured out how to do two amazing things with transfer factors – extract them from cow colostrum (first milk) and chicken eggs, and create transfer factors for specific disease states, like herpes viruses and Lyme. When ingested, transfer factors tell a person’s immune system what to go after, how to do it, and when to stop. It’s a safe assumption we’ll be hearing more about transfer fac-tors as time goes by – but don’t hold your breath!


Is it transfer factor or transfer factors?

Dr. Lawrence referred to the mystery harbingers of immunity from white blood cells as “transfer factor”. Something, or perhaps some-things, were transferring immunity. Given what immunologists have discovered about these things in the decades since, the description “transfer factors”, plural, seems to work okay, too. These tiny bits of information can instruct the immune system to do several different things, thus transferring immunity via several different routes. Rather than one factor, there seem to be several involved in trans-ferring immunity.

treatment and prevention. Researchers employed by the few companies now marketing transfer factors to the public have taken advantage of the fact that transfer factors are present in colostrum, the first fluid released from a breast after child birth. This is true in humans, cows, and other mammals. They are also present inside of chicken eggs. When ingested by the offspring, transfer factors pass along instructions for the offspring’s immune system. They also stimulate the production of Natural Killer cells, white blood cells always on the prowl for foreign invaders and capable of gobbling them up without involving the rest of the immune system.

Despite variability in methodologies and outcomes, decades of research on transfer factors compels the assertion that transfer factors could be as important as antibiotics for battling disease. Antibiotics only target bacteria. Transfer factors can help the body fight bacteria, as well as viruses and even cancer cells. They work by directly bolstering an individual’s own immune system so that it can deal with unwanted guests. They can now be custom made to deal with specific, hard to treat pathogens – like different strains of the herpes virus, cell wall deficient Lyme (a bacteria that can invade immune cells and act like a virus), Epstein Barr (which causes mononucleosis), cytomegalovirus, HIV and others. The true value of this treatment modality is yet to be determined. However, if the past is any guide, the future could be quite bright for this strategy and for those suffering from a long list of diseases for which modern medicine currently offers little hope.

Let’s look at a few of the bright spots in the research literature.

When made to help the immune system fight against strains of the herpes virus, transfer factors were found to be superior to acyclovir, an antiviral drug sold by drug companies (Estrada-Parra et al., 1998)

Transfer factors diminish the number of relapses of genital herpes (Pizza et al, 1996)

Transfer factors help AIDS patients beat cryptosporidium, a common stomach ailments in this population (McMeeking et al, 1990)

Transfer factors lead to a reduction in the size of glioblastomas, the most common type of

ScienceSays — Transfer factors in disease treatment

How the world beat small pox

Until recently, the small pox virus was one of the most feared and deadly viruses around. It causes blistering over vast areas of the body and leads to a painful death. In 1796, Edward Jen-ner, a country doctor in England, performed the first ever vacci-nation to protect a human against a disease – in this case, small pox. Jenner noticed that people who milked cows were less likely to get small pox. He reasoned it was because these folks were being exposed to cow pox from the cows, and that the cow pox must be similar enough to small pox that the individuals’ bodies were able to learn how to protect themselves against both diseases. To test this, he injected cow pox into an 8-year-old boy named James Phipps. A month and a half later he injected James with the small pox virus to see if his strategy worked. It did! The boy didn’t contract small pox, ushering in a new option for preventing disease – vaccination. (The word “vaccine” actually comes from the Latin word for cow, vacca.) A unique strategy was used get cow pox to America so that it could be used to inoculate colonists. Children were used to transport the virus. One would be infected before boarding ships headed for the New World. As that one began to heal, another kid, and then another kid, and so on, would be infected, until the voyage ended. In the mid-20th century, Russia lobbied the World Health Organization (WHO) to make a push to eradi-cate smallpox by vaccinating portions of the population in each country where smallpox occurred. Nearly 20 years later, in 1977, the WHO announced that smallpox had become the first virus on earth to be eradicated by vaccinations. Only two known quantities of small pox remain on earth – one at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, and one at the Moscow Research Institute for Viral Preparations. Let’s hope they stay there!

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cancerous tumors in the central nervous system. (Pineda et al., 2005)

Transfer factors and orphaned diseases

Currently, in addition to well-known and aggressively treated ailments like cancer, members of the public and the doctors that treat them are wrestling with a long list of diseases that are poorly understood and for which no current, effective treatment paradigms exist. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Lyme disease is caused by a tick born bacteria. If caught early, it can usually be eradicated by traditional antibiotic therapy. However, if not caught early, and even in some cases where it is, many patients go on to develop troubling and persistent problems – like arthritis, facial palsies, intermittent flu-like symptoms, and others. Once this occurs, even IV antibiotics can be ineffective at bringing patients relief. In all likelihood, this has to do with the fact that the Lyme spirochete can shed its cell wall and set up shop inside of host cells, including immune cells. They take on a form called mycoplasma and begin to function more like viruses than bacteria. Currently, there is a product available to the public (called ImmuneTransfer C) that contains transfer factors for cell-wall deficient Lyme. Time will tell whether these designer immune boosters can help patients suffering from Lyme recover. The odds seem good.

Another so-called orphaned disease state is Chronic Fatigue Immunodeficiency Syndrome (CFIDS). Anyone who has suffered from this syndrome -- characterized by cognitive impairments that can reach frightening intensity (brain fog), widespread physical discomfort, dizziness upon standing, aching fatigue, poor sleep and other symptoms -- has probably learned the hard way that Western

ScienceSays — Transfer factors in disease treatment

Sunlight, Vitamin D and immune system health — a role for technology

Most cells in the body contain receptors for Vitamin D. Not surpris-ingly, this vitamin plays several vital roles in health. These include providing calcium for healthy bones and reducing the likelihood that healthy cells will become cancerous (Holick, 2006). Vitamin D also plays an important role in immune system functioning, and Vitamin D deficiencies might contribute to the pathophysiology of autoim-mune conditions like Multiple Sclerosis (Cantorna, 2006).

Sunlight is central to Vitamin D production. The vitamin is produced by the skin in response to being bombarded with quanta of UV light from the sun. Researchers estimate that 90% of the Vitamin D our bodies need is generated by exposure to sunlight. Australian re-searchers estimate that fair skinned Australians need between 2-14 minutes of exposure to midday sun three-four times per week with 15% of their skin exposed to generate sufficient amount of the vita-min. Necessary exposure times are longer for people with darker skin, a fact that could contribute to higher rates of prostate cancer in those with darker skin tone (see www.prostatecancerfoundation.org for more).

Exposure to sunlight is critical for health beyond Vitamin D produc-tion. Exposure to either the sun or broad spectrum light (pseudo-sunlight) activates the immune system and increases white blood cell counts in healthy people (Hyun et al., 2005). Both sunlight and Vitamin D supplementation have been found to boost mood and ease depression. Indeed, a half hour per morning of broad spec-trum 10,000 lux light has been found to alleviate symptoms of Sea-sonal Affective Disorder (Eastman et al., 1998).

Technology has advanced greatly in this area and bright, broad spectrum lighting can now be made from cool burning LED lights, rather than huge banks of hot lights as in the past. A company called Nature Bright (www.naturebright.com) makes products for people who want to reap the benefits of exposing their brains to pseudo-sunlight. One model is called the Inspiration. It is a light panel that doubles as a dawn simulator — slowly increasing in intensity like a sunrise. The light panel is on the end of an arm, allowing users to position the panel above their heads for optimum exposure in the morning. Placing the panel within a few feet of one’s face is recommended.

Bright light exposure in the morning has the advantage of doing what’s called entraining circadian rhythms. There is no more pow-erful signal that the day has just started than sunlight. Our bodies and brains — including the endocrine system — use sunlight to tell us that it’s time to get going. Without exposure to sun in the morn-ings, some people have trouble getting going at all. Others suffer from clinical depression during the shortest days of the year. En-training rhythms with blasts of sunlight in the AM can also promote healthy sleep patterns over time, which is important for hormone regulation and immune function. Indeed, immune system health in HIV patients appears to be influenced by sleep quality (Cruess et al., 2003). Despite the fact that we humans have learned to function at any time of the day or night, exposure to sunlight remains central to our basic physiological health, from the single cell on up.

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medicine is currently impotent at dealing with this condition, as well as a closely related condition called Fibromyalgia.

In many cases, it appears that CFIDS sufferers exhibit weaknesses in immune system functioning, perhaps combined with chronic activation of some aspects of the immune system. Weaknesses in the immune system place some sufferers at risk for becoming infested with pathogens. Chronic activation of the immune system, presumably in an effort to deal with these pathogens, could explain symptoms like diffuse back pain, lethargy, depression, anxiety, and fatigue (see the subsequent section on immune system activation and psychological well-being). In patients that fit this profile, transfer factors have the potential to work wonders. In a very small number of clinical trials, transfer factors have been found to be effective for some sufferers of CFIDS – but, importantly, not others.

A recent report by Dr. Nancy Klimas, a highly respected researcher and one of the world’s foremost authorities on CFIDS, and her colleagues suggests that female sufferers can be sorted according to Natural Killer cell levels (Seigel et al., 2006). Those with below normal levels tend to exhibit greater levels of cognitive dysfunction, reduced drive, and greater difficulties functioning during the day. It seems logical to postulate that subjects in this subgroup might be particularly good candidates for benefiting from the Natural Killer cell-enhancing effects of transfer factors.

A larger percentage of sufferers of CFIDS test positive for active infections with HHV6 (one of eight strains of the herpes virus). This virus is also present in the vast majority of sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) who exhibit a pattern of relapses and remissions, suggesting possible immunodeficiency in sufferers of this syndrome, as well. While these viruses, and the immune activation that follows, probably cause many of the symptoms of CFIDS, MS and other conditions, these infections are primarily symptomatic of some more basic, underlying problem in the individual. The nature of the underlying problem varies from person to person, but immune system dysfunction seems to be a

ScienceSays — Transfer factors in disease treatmentPAGE 6

The CDC creates a website about Chronic Fa-tigue Immunodeficiency Syndrome (CFIDS)The Centers for Disease Control finally created a webpage about Chronic Fa-tigue Syndrome, more commonly known to sufferers as Chronic Fatigue Immu-nodeficiency Syndrome (CFIDS), during the fall of 2006 (www.cdc.gov/cfs/). The introduction begins with the following:

“Managing chronic fatigue syndrome can be as complex as the illness itself. There is no cure yet, no prescription drugs have been developed specifically for CFS, and symptoms vary considerably over time. These factors complicate the treatment picture and re-quire you and your health care team to constantly monitor and frequently revise treatment strategies.”

It is accurate but unhelpful and effectively leaves sufferers exactly where they were before the CDC launched its site – frustrated and feeling hopeless. How many sick people have a healthcare team? The CDC is investigating the mechanisms involved in CFIDS and Fibromyalgia. Hopefully, progress will advance quickly from this point forward.

Post-exertional malaise in CFIDS and Fibromyalgia

One of the most confusing aspects of conditions like CFIDS and Fibromyalgia is that exercise often exacerbates the problems rather than promoting health. The CDC defines this phenomenon as a “relapse of symptoms after physical or men-tal exertion”. This effectively traps the sick individual and confines them to light duties, if those are possible. Research indicates that the immune system is activated (e.g., increase in NK cells) following exercise of moderate intensity. Many sufferers of CFIDS show low NK cell levels at baseline. Perhaps exercise temporarily strengthens the immune system, allowing it to ratchet up its efforts to rid the individual of whatever pathogens have set up shop. This could lead to an increase in sick behaviors and the experiences that go with it. It would be inter-esting to assess immune markers before and after exertion in sufferers of CFIDS and Fibromyalgia.

common denominator. The role that transfer factors could play in correcting these abnormalities is yet to be elucidated.

Boosting immune system health could improve psychological well-being

Research has begun to elucidate the relationship between immune system health and general feelings of well-being. Researchers in Israel examined the psychological well-being of teenage girls vaccinated for the rubella virus, a common cause of illness in kids. This process involves injecting portions of the virus into the body so that the immune system can learn to recognize it and protect the person against it if it is ever encountered out there in the world. Following such vaccinations, the immune system can become acutely active, making people feel ill. Those that became slightly ill also became slightly depressed! In the words of the authors, many of the vaccinated girls “showed a significant rise in several standard measures of depressed mood, as well as an increased incidence of social and attention problems and delinquent behavior… Thus, even a mild viral infection can produce a prolonged increase in depressive symptoms in vulnerable persons.”

The same group of researchers took their investigations into the relationship between immune system health and psychological functioning one step further. They injected small portions of the cell walls from bacteria into subjects, a technique commonly used to evoke an immune response in humans in order to assess immune system health. Even though the injected material caused no physical symptoms “The subjects showed a transient substantial increase in levels of anxiety and depressed mood. In addition, verbal and nonverbal memory functions were substantially impaired.”

Another study of mood in young females after rubella vaccination found similar results (Yirmaya et al., 2000). In the words of the study authors, “compared to control group subjects and to their own baseline, a subgroup of vulnerable individuals (girls from low socioeconomic status) showed a significant virus-induced increase in depressed mood up to 10 weeks after vaccination.”

Similar findings have been observed when subjects are injected with cytokines, molecules released as part of the body’s immune response. Researchers at the University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana argue that cytokines cause many of the symptoms of illness by acting directly in the brain. Here’s what they had to say in a recent paper (Dantzer and Kelley, 2006).

Cytokines “act in the brain to induce common symptoms of sickness, such as loss of appetite, sleepiness, withdrawal from normal social activities, fever, aching joints and fatigue…The fact that cytokines act in the brain to induce physiological adaptations that promote survival has led to the hypothesis that inappropriate, prolonged activation of the innate


Laughter and immune system health

Researchers at the Indiana State School of Nursing have re-ported that having cancer patients view humerous programs leads to increases in Natural Killer cell levels. In their words, “Laughter may reduce stress and improve NK cell activity. As low NK cell activity is linked to decreased disease resistance and increased morbidity in persons with cancer and HIV dis-ease, laughter may be a useful cognitive-behavioral interven-tion.” (Bennett et al., 2003).

immune system may be involved in a number of pathological disturbances in the brain, ranging from Alzheimer's disease to stroke…Indeed, the newest findings of cytokine actions in the brain offer some of the first clues about the pathophysiology of certain mental health disorders, including depression.”

Interestingly, antidepressants suppress production of some cytokines (Diamond et al., 2006) and have been found to reduce the symptoms of cytokine-induced depression (Yirmaya et al., 2000; Chiung-Wen Tsao et al., 2006).

And so, it appears that activity within the immune system can have a big impact on how otherwise healthy people think and feel. It therefore makes sense that a healthy immune system contributes to psychological health and well-being.

The immune system also seems to play a role in many major psychiatric disorders. Researchers have long speculated that there are links between immune system health and psychiatric conditions. Studies performed decades ago suggest that exposure to certain strains of the flu virus during the third trimester of pregnancy increases the likelihood that offspring will develop schizophrenia. A new category of pediatric ailments called PANDAS includes sudden onset tick disorders and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and appears to be caused by an autoimmune reaction. Specifically, immune cells seeking the strep bacteria attack brain cells in an area called the basal ganglia. It is possible that transfer factors could be engineered to help balance the immune system in these individuals, perhaps leading to a diminution of symptom intensity.

With regard to immune system health and psychiatric conditions, Sperner-Unterweger (2005) states the following:

“Treatment strategies based on immune mechanisms have been investigated in patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders. Furthermore, some antipsychotics and most antidepressants are known to have direct or indirect effects on the immune system. Different immunotherapies have been used in autism, including transfer factor, pentoxifylline, intravenous immunoglobulins and corticosteroids. Immunosuppressive and/or immunomodulating agents are well established methods for treating the neuropsychiatric sequelae of immune or autoimmune disorders, for example AIDS and SLE. Therapeutic approaches in Alzheimer's disease also apply immunological methods such as strategies of active/passive immunisation and NSAIDs. Considering the comprehensive interactive network between mind and body, future research should focus on approaches linking targets of the different involved systems.”

And with regard to the etiology and treatment of autism, Kidd (2002) tells us:


“Autism and allied autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) present myriad behavioral, clinical, and biochemical abnormalities… Immune therapies (pentoxifyllin, intravenous immunoglobulin, transfer factor, and colostrum) benefit selected cases… Current pharmaceuticals fail to benefit the primary symptoms and can have marked adverse effects. Individualized, in-depth clinical and laboratory assessments and integrative parent-physician-scientist cooperation are the keys to successful ASD management.”

An immune system link would certainly help explain the increasing rates of autism. According to the Autism Society of America (www.autism-society.org), rates of the disorder are growing at roughly 10-17% per year. According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, researchers at UC-Davis estimated in 2003 that California was:

“...adding an average of 11 names a day to its list of severely autistic children qualifying for state-financed services. The average lifetime cost of these educational services is $4 million per child. As a result, the increase in children eligible for services represents an increase in the state’s long-term financial responsibility of $44 million a day.”

Who knows what the underlying culprit is, but the potential to make progress in the treatment of the disorder by putting funding into the immune system link seems worth considering.

Transfer factors and autoimmune conditions—wouldn’t activating the immune system make these conditions worse?

Autoimmune conditions are those in which an over-eager immune system attacks tissues that actually belong in the “self” category rather than the “other” category. The consequences depend on where the attacked cells are and what they do. On the surface, it seems that doing anything that provokes immune system activity might make such conditions worse. Yet, transfer factors have been recommended for, and found to be effective at treating, several putative autoimmune conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis (Georgscu, 1985). Mixed evidence exists for their use in treating Multiple Sclerosis (Barsten, 1980). How does this work? Admittedly, the author has no clue, but others have argued that transfer factors somehow balance immune system functioning and somehow tone down autoimmune responses. Decades ago, Hughes (1983) reported on efforts to combat Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune condition, by either suppressing or activating the immune system. Immune system activation, including the use of transfer factors, seemed to be superior, which defies logic when a simplistic view of the immune system is used. How transfer factors affect the pathophysiology of autoimmune conditions is unclear. It is a topic that will have to await further research and will require true authorities on the subject to explain.


Potential future uses of transfer factors

In the future, there’s a chance this technology will be used to help sick patients corral viruses like HIV, which causes AIDS. Several studies, all plagued by methodological limitations of one kind or another, have examined the potential utility of transfer factors in the treatment of HIV. Several have found promising results, particularly when transfer factors were combined with standard antiviral drugs. However, the majority of such studies utilized extracts from human white blood cells and dosing regimens in which the extracts were injected into patients using an arbitrary schedule. With the advent of potent, stable preparations of transfer factors from cows and chickens, it should be possible for the real work to begin. Hopefully, in the near future, researchers will attempt to attack the HIV virus using aggressive, well-planned dosing regimens of transfer factors raised against the HIV virus in cows and chickens. If strategies used in the past yielded positive outcomes, even better findings should be possible now. Time will tell.

One of the truly appealing aspects of using transfer factors for disease treatment and prevention is that it circumvents the need to involve the traditional pharmaceutical companies. Transfer factors are made by companies promoting alternatives to standard drug company treatment modalities. The products fall well within the bounds of being considered supplements under the DSHEA of 1994 and the companies make absolutely no claims about the effectiveness of these amino acid sequences in treating diseases (please see the text box on Page 11). Nothing stands in the way of private foundations purchasing and distributing transfer factors to populations that could benefit from them, including some sufferers of Lyme, CFIDS, MS, Fibromyalagia, HIV/AIDS and other conditions. There are no guarantees that transfer factors would help such folks, but the safety margin and cost effectiveness, combined with the potential to improve the quality of life of those


Transfer factors are supplements, not drugs

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994 sets out the rules regarding supplement creation, sales and marketing. Under this act, Congress defines dietary supplements as follows:

“A dietary supplement is a product taken by mouth that contains a "dietary ingredient" intended to supplement the diet. The "dietary ingredients" in these products may include: vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, glandu-lars, and metabolites. Dietary supplements can also be extracts or con-centrates, and may be found in many forms such as tablets, capsules, softgels, gelcaps, liquids, or powders. They can also be in other forms, such as a bar, but if they are, information on their label must not represent the product as a conventional food or a sole item of a meal or diet. What-ever their form may be, DSHEA places dietary supplements in a special category under the general umbrella of "foods," not drugs, and requires that every supplement be labeled a dietary supplement.”

This next part is very important.

“A product sold as a dietary supplement and promoted on its label or in labeling* as a treatment, prevention or cure for a specific disease or con-dition would be considered an unapproved--and thus illegal--drug. To maintain the product's status as a dietary supplement, the label and label-ing must be consistent with the provisions in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.

*Labeling refers to the label as well as accompanying material that is used by a manufacturer to promote and market a specific product.”

Products containing transfer factors are clearly labeled as dietary supplements. They are made from food products – cow milk and chicken eggs. They appear to contain information used by the immune system to attack disease causing pathogens, but this remains unclear and the companies supplying them make absolutely no claims about the effectiveness of their products in treating par-ticular conditions. In fact, they do the opposite — making it clear that their products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.

The author of the current paper has no relationship whatsoever with the com-panies creating transfer factors, with the exception of being a consumer. The author’s assertions that these simple molecules could be beneficial in promot-ing health represent his opinions and claims, not those of the companies that make the products.

suffering from chronic, immune system-related ailments warrants consideration. Some formulations cost about as much as a good multivitamin and appear to be about as safe.

Hopefully, in the near future, double-blind, well-controlled clinical studies will establish appropriate treatment protocols for transfer factors. For the time being, the available literature and real world experience will have to remain the primary driving forces behind the course of treatment.

Transfer factors in disease prevention

In addition to helping patients beat diseases they have already contracted, transfer factors could be used in ways similar to traditional vaccines, protecting people against diseases before they’ve been exposed to them. Indeed, that is how they were used in the first place when discovered by Dr. Lawrence in the 1940s.

Researchers in China speculate that transfer factors will be useful in treating and preventing hepatitis B (Xu YP et al., 2006). Researchers in Italy recently made a similar argument for the use of transfer factors in preventing and treating newly emerging strains of bird flu. According to the authors (Pizza et al., 2006):

“Avian influenza…presents a threat of producing a pandemic. The consensus is that the occurrence of such a pandemic is only a matter of time. This is of great concern, since no effective vaccine is available or can be made before the occurrence of the event. We present arguments for the use of cell mediated immunity for the prevention of the infection as well as for the treatment of infected patients. Transfer factor (TF)…has been used successfully over the past quarter of a century for treating viral, parasitic, and fungal infections, as well as immunodeficiencies, neoplasias, allergies and autoimmune diseases. Moreover, several observations suggest that it can be utilized for prevention, transferring immunity prior to infection…Thus, a specific TF to a new influenza virus can be made swiftly and used for prevention as well as for the treatment of infected patients.”

Availability of transfer factors

It is truly a remarkable development that researchers have figured out how to mass produce transfer factors and have brought them to the public. For the time being, and for as long as drug companies and the FDA stay within their bounds, transfer factors are available as supplements, as well they should be, and can be purchased from a few different online vendors, including some that sell through Amazon.com. Some are generic – they boost immune system functioning in general, particularly Natural Killer cell levels. Others are specific – they contain transfer factors that carry instructions that could help the immune system locate and destroy specific pathogens, like herpes viruses. Some are even packaged with probiotics, bacteria that promote healthy digestive systems. Unhealthy digestive systems are common in people suffering from a wide variety of ailments.


Transfer factors appear to be very safe to take, with few adverse reactions reported in any of the clinical studies in which they have been used. Many users experience mild flu-like symptoms at some point within the first month of treatment. This is generally taken as a good sign – an indication that the immune system working. Symptoms of illness often worsen before improving in those people for whom transfer factors work. This has traditionally been seen as part of the healing process. If a person feels ill because their immune systems are chronically activated yet incapable of destroying the disease causing agent, then jacking up the immune system so that it can make a push to get rid of the pathogen is certain to make some people feel more ill on their way to feeling better. This is one of the paradoxical effects of recovery from viral illnesses for some people — feeling better and worse at the same time.

Many antiviral and even antibacterial drugs pushed by drug companies cannot boast similar safety profiles. Some antivirals are known cause liver failure, and serious side effects from antibiotics are more common than many might realize.

Transfer factors are currently manufactured and sold by a small number of companies, including Immunity Today (www.immunitytoday.com), ProHealth (www.immunesupport.com) and 4Life (www.4life.com).

Perhaps the most impressive transfer factor product available at the moment, from any company, is something called ImmuneTransfer C, which happens to be sold by ProHealth. The product contains a broad spectrum of transfer factors from cow colostrum and chicken eggs, along with all the probiotics necessary to promote digestive health. The product also contains transfer factors that educate the immune system about how to recognize and deal with several specific viruses and mycoplasma associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and other conditions. These include transfer factors for Epstein-Barr, cytomeglavirus, Candida pneumonia, cell-wall deficient Lyme, Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV6), babesia, erlichia and others. The company makes no claims that the product will work for these conditions. Indeed, they do not even market it as a product containing transfer factors for these pathogens.

Descriptions of the products available from each company can be found here:ProHealth www.prohealth.com/shop

www.cfs-healing.info/database.htmImmunity Today www.immunitytoday.com/products.html4Life www.4life.com/products/products.aspx

For starters — What product should the typical consumer buy?

Before proceeding, please be fully aware that the author of this document is a neuroscientist and


Transfer factors and food allergies?

Transfer factors are extracted from cow colostrum and chicken eggs. What about people who are allergic to both for some reason? According to the companies that make them, it doesn’t appear to be an issue given the miniscule size of the amino acid chains that comprise transfer factors. The components of milk and eggs that might cause allergies are all filtered out.

psychologist, not a Medical Doctor. His interest in this topic began as a result of a close friend’s illness. He has been conducting published scientific research on a variety of topics, many related to brain function, for more than a decade. This article was prepared with the care and diligence given his other papers, but the topic is not in his area of expertise and he is not an MD. Please do not misinterpret his suggestions as medical advice. Decisions about the use of these products are yours to make and yours only.

With that said, both ProHealth and 4Life sell products for daily use. ProHealth sells a formulation called “Transfer Factor Essentials”. It is currently priced at $39.99 for a one month supply and can be purchased online (www.prohealth.com) or by phone (800-366-6056). It contains transfer factors from cow colostrum and chicken eggs, as well as a list of nutrients, like Beta Glucan, that are important for healthy immune functioning. If taken as directed for a six month period, potential benefits for basic health should be apparent. Of course, to benefit from the immune boosting properties throughout the year, they could be taken for longer periods of time. At present, there currently exists no evidence that long-term use of transfer factors causes health problems of any kind.

4Life also makes a transfer factor product for daily use — called “ 4Life Transfer Factor Classic”. This product sells for $42.95 at www.4life.com. Products from 4Life and ProHealth can also be purchased through Amazon.com

Pulsing or daily administration?

The optimal dosing regimen for oral transfer factor supplements remains unclear. Many clinicians have found that pulsing treatments with other immune boosting supplements and drugs, like Immunovir (Isoprinosine), is more effective than daily dosing. The concern is that the immune system will learn to ignore a consistent signal. As such, they recommend pulsing the treatments in some sort of staggered regimen with breaks in between. For instance, rather than daily dosing, as the maker of Immunovir (Newport Pharmaceuticals) recommends, Dr. Paul Cheney, a CFIDS specialist, recommends a pattern in which 6 pills are taken Monday-Friday during week one, 2 pills per day Monday-Friday during week two. No pills on the weekends. Take every other month off.

Presently, companies manufacturing products that contain transfer factors recommend daily dosing. It is unclear whether a pulsing strategy would be more effective. The size of transfer factors and their absorption following oral administration

Transfer factors, growth hormones, and other important constituents of colostrum are swallowed by infants and absorbed intact via the digestive system. However, the digestive systems of newborns are not complete, creating a window of opportunity for getting these things in.

Of import is whether the short-chains of amino acids that comprise transfer factors are absorbed into the body intact following oral administration or are broken down during digestion in the


stomach and intestines. The technological advances that have allowed these immune boosters to be sold in powdered form and taken orally are only valuable if the end product gets into the body and becomes bioavailable.

As discussed, transfer factors appear to be, primarily, chains of amino acids. Amino acids are strung together into short chains (peptides) and long chains (proteins). During digestion, proteins are broken down into amino acids, dipeptides (a pair of amino acids) and tripeptides (three amino acids together) by enzymes called proteases and peptidases. While two or three amino acids might not sound like a lot, some important peptides in the body are, in fact, that short. Glutathione, an antioxidant, and thyrotropin releasing hormone, a hormone central to thyroid functioning, are only three amino acids long.

In some people — lots of people, in fact —gaps between cells lining the gastrointestinal tract are too large, allowing proteins, bacteria, toxins and other large molecules to get in. The problem is called “leaky gut”. As such, these molecules get into the body and are then attacked by the immune system. Food allergies, such as peanut allergies, can result. While these gaps could help absorption of important meds, the constant presence of these gaps causes lots of problems. Researchers are currently working on ways to make the gut leaky temporarily so that supplements and drugs can be absorbed more fully.

In 2000, Kirkpartrick wrote that, “To date, neither the primary structures nor the mechanisms of action of transfer factors have been identified. However, recent studies have shown that transfer factors can be purified to a high degree of homogeneity and that the purified transfer factors are proteinaceous and immunologically specific.”

The researcher and his colleagues identified a conserved amino acid sequence in transfer factors, meaning that all transfer factors seem to contain this particular strand of amino acids plus whatever it is that makes each one specific to a pathogen. Interestingly, administering this conserved sequence to mice receiving complete transfer factor molecules blocked the effects of the complete transfer factors, a finding similar to how some drugs shaped like neurotransmitters prevent


When should observable changes occur in ill patients?Clearly, this will depend on lots of factors, some knowable some unknowable. Natural Killer cell levels should increase within days, but educating immune cells about threats to go after could take months.

Dr. Carol Ann Ryser, MD — the Medical Director of Health Cen-ters of America — has been using transfer factor supplements in her practice since 1998. In 2001, she was interviewed by Pro-Health. Here is a snippet of the interview. See “Stiff” in the refer-ence list for a link to the full interview.

ImmuneSupport.com: How long does it usually take for a patient to experience positive results once they start taking Transfer Factor?

Dr. Ryser: My patients usually start to feel better within 3-6 months of beginning treatment with Transfer Factor. Dramatic results usually manifest in about one year, but we really begin to see positive changes in 5-6 months. It typically takes about a year of Transfer Factor treatment to really turn a patient around. I am specifically referring to chronically ill patients who have an average of 2-7 chronic infections that require treat-ment. The body’s cells regenerate every six months, and you need to give the body a chance to generate healthy cells be-fore dramatic improvements in a patient’s overall health can emerge.

Dr. Ryser indicated that she has seen tremendous improvements in health for those with chronic viral infections, even for extremely ill patients. However, many relapse if they make the decision to stop taking them once their health improves. She recommends that patients look at this as a life long commitment. Whether this is the case with other conditions is unclear.

A commitment to taking a daily supplement to control symptoms of an illness seems like a fair trade, particularly in cases where one’s health is poor without treatment. This is the case in many other domains of health, too, including the treatment of psychiat-ric conditions like depression and schizophrenia.

neurotransmitters from activating their target receptors in the brain. Kirkpatrick believes that this conserved sequence represents the portion of the transfer factor molecule that binds to receptors on white blood cells. Once bound, the remaining portion of the molecule conveys immunity in some way.

The conserved sequence itself is longer than three amino acids in length. In fact, it appears to be 10 amino acids in length. The paper does not examine the length of the active components of the transfer factor molecules. Transfer factors are thought to have a molecular weight of about 5000 Daltons (Da). For reference, Tryptophan is the heaviest individual amino acid at 204.22 Da.

Oral transfer factors seem to work, which provides compelling anecdotal evidence that they do get absorbed and become bioavailable. Indeed, the flu-like symptoms that often result from their use clearly indicate that enough of the supplement gets in to activate the immune system. How they are absorbed, how much is absorbed, and what percentage of the doses become bioavailable are not known – at least not to the author of this paper. If you have insight and would be willing to share, please send the information to [email protected] .


A putative role for insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) in the pathophysiology of shingles, Alzheimer’s and diabetes

Many adults are revisited by the herpes virus that causes chicken pox, but this time in a more painful way. After being beaten back by childhood immune systems, the virus hides inside of nerve cells, including cells that pick up sensory information from the skin. When under stress, when the skin is damaged, when ill with other conditions, the opportunistic virus comes out of the ends of the nerves near the skin. It invades skin cells and causes them to erupt, leading to the painful patches of blisters for which the disease is known. Sensory nerves carry information from discrete areas of skin called dermatomes (imagine having a lower back brace on, that would represent something like a dermatome). Because of this, shingles outbreaks can have well-defined borders.

This fall, Drs. Jeffrey Cohen and Quinxeue Li, researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases reported a very interesting finding. The shingles virus gets inside of cells by attaching to an enzyme called insulin degrading enzyme (IDE). It literally catches a ride on IDE when this enzyme enters cells.

Insulin degrading enzyme (IDE) is an interesting thing. It is an enzyme that seems to play a role in several disease states. As discussed above, it serves as the gateway into cells for shingles. Theoretically, without any IDE whatsoever, no one would get shingles. Even if that were possible, too little IDE might be worse. We need IDE to regulate levels of three other proteins involved in disease – Beta-Amyloid Precursor Protein (b-APP), insulin, and amylin.

High levels of b-APP are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s.

Too much insulin can cause diabetes.

Deposits containing amylin are found in dead pancreas cells in people with Type II diabetes.

Levels of all three proteins are regulated by IDE. There is some speculation that an allele for the gene that carries the instructions for how to make IDE could lead to too little IDE, raising levels of b-APP, insulin and amylin, and increasing one’s odds of Alz-heimer’s and diabetes (Farris et al., 2003).

When insulin levels go up, IDE levels go up because something needs to break the insulin down (Zhao et al., 2004). Zhao and colleagues (2004) provide evidence that activation of insulin receptors leads to a downstream increase in IDE levels. This keeps the system in check. In Type II diabetes, the scenario might work like this. Chronically activating insulin receptors via sugar intake leads them to become desensitized. If they’re desensitized, then, presumably, less IDE would be created. As we have discussed,less IDE could lead to the amylin deposits in pancreas b-cells and high insulin levels seen in diabetes

Because IDE breaks down b-APP, less IDE associated with diabetes could also lead to more b-APP, which would increase the odds of Alzheimer’s. This fits nicely with a recent report suggesting that, “type II diabetes predicted the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s”. (University of Michigan News Service, March 13, 2006).

Closing comments

Transfer factors are tiny molecules that educate the immune system about known and potential threats from foreign invaders and even cancer cells. They were discovered in 1949, but the discovery caused only quiet celebration as the technology needed to produce large quantities for disease treatment did not exist. It does now. More than 50 years after their discovery, the true utility of transfer factors in disease treatment and prevention can finally be researched and realized. Several issues are yet to be resolved — including optimal dosing strategies and how immune system activation via transfer factors could affect autoimmune conditions. Who knows what the story on transfer factors will read like in ten years. However, perhaps more than any other emerging modality in the treatment and prevention of disease, transfer factors hold incredible promise.

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Enbrel represents one way to treat im-mune dysfunction

Enbrel is an injectable immunosuppressor advertised on television for the treatment of arthritis. Clearly, drugs like this can be of benefit for some people. For the purpose of this text box, it serves as an example of the fact that conditions involving immune system dys-function can be attacked on a variety of levels. Improvements can occur through two very different strategies — getting rid of the un-derlying source of immune system activation, or through suppressing the chronically activated immune system. Enbrel does the latter.

Transfer factors have been found to be successful in treating arthri-tis. It would be of interest to compare Enbrel, made by Amgen and Wyeth, and select formulations of transfer factors.

The safety margin for transfer factors is only one reason that this approach would be preferable, but it’s a good reason. Enbrel and drugs like it are not without complications. From the Enbrel website:

What important information do I need to know about taking ENBREL?

ENBREL is a type of protein called a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blocker that blocks the action of a substance your body's immune system makes called TNF. People with an immune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, and psoriasis, have too much TNF in their bodies. ENBREL can reduce the amount of TNF in the body to normal levels, helping to treat your disease. But, in doing so, ENBREL can also lower the ability of your immune system to fight infections.

All medicines have side effects, including ENBREL. Possible side effects of ENBREL include...

Serious nervous system disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, seizures, or inflammation of the nerves of the eyes…

Rare reports of serious blood disorders (some fatal)…

In medical studies of all TNF blockers, including ENBREL, a higher rate of lymphoma (a type of cancer) was seen compared to the general population. The risk of lymphoma may be up to several-fold higher in rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis patients

The role of TNF blockers, including ENBREL, in the development of lymphoma is unknown

ENBREL can cause injection site reactions

In a medical study of patients with JRA, infections, headaches, abdominal pain, vomiting, and nausea occurred more frequently than in adults

Do young females need to be vaccinated against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)?

HPV, a sexually transmitted infection is thought to be the causative agent behind many cases of cervical cancer — up to 70%. Cervical cancer is curable if caught early and afflicts around 15,000 women per year. By comparison, breast cancer strikes some-where near 200,000 women. A vaccine for HPV has been approved by the FDA and is recommended for girls aged 11 or 12. It requires three injections during six months. Side effects include flu-like symptoms, etc, but it appears to be safe overall. Whether to get the vaccine is a matter of choice. In the future, perhaps transfer factors selective for HPV could serve as a safer, more convenient alternative to vaccination.

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About the author Aaron White ([email protected]) is a biological psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Medical Psychology, at Duke University Medical Center. He received his PhD in psychology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1999 and com-pleted a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Duke Med before joining the faculty in 2001. His expertise and training is largely in neuroscience. His interests gravitate toward issues affecting adolescent health and well-being, including psychological health and brain functioning. The link between immune system health and psychological well-being is beginning to be elucidated and is of interest to Dr. White. However, it should be understood that Dr. White is not an immunolo-gist and has no training in the field. The current review represents a scholarly attempt to do the topic of transfer factors justice. It is not meant to be the final word on this issue, or to represent medical advice in any way. Indeed, as a PhD rather than an MD, Dr. White is not capable of providing direct recommendations for how to take care of your body. This document is for edu-cational purposes only.

This article is the first in a series aimed at providing the public with useful summaries of research related to emerging topics in science and medicine. They will be posted at the website, www.science-says.com . All rights are reserved by the author. Please feel free to distribute for educational and non-commercial purposes only.


Transfer Factor Review

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