EFFECTS OF BIO-NORMALIZER (A FOOD SUPPLEMENTATION) ON FREE-RADICAL PRODUCTION BY HUMAN BLOOD NEUTROPHILS, ERYTHROCYTES, AND RAT PERITONEAL-MACROPHAGES

Bio-normalizer, a natural Japanese health food prepared by the ferment ation of Carica papaya, exhibits therapeutic properties against variou s pathologies including tumors and immunodeficiency, To understand the mechanism of bio-normalizer's therapeutic effects, we studied its act ion on the production of active oxygen species in cell-free systems (t he Fenton reaction, the xanthine-xanthine oxidase system, and the hydr ogen peroxide-hypochloride or hydrogen peroxide-horseradish peroxidase systems) and by human blood neutrophils and erythrocytes and rat peri toneal macrophages. Bio-normalizer efficiently inhibited the formation of oxygen radicals in cell-free systems and partly decreased spontane ous and menadione-stimulated Superoxide production by erythrocytes, bu t manifested both stimulatory and inhibitory effects on oxygen radical release by dormant and activated phagocytes (neutrophils and macropha ges). We suggest that bio-normalizer is able to enhance the intracellu lar production of innocuous superoxide ion and, at the same time, to d iminish the formation of reactive hydroxyl radicals, perhaps by the in activation of ferrous ions, the catalysts of the superoxide-driven Fen ton reaction. We also propose that the normalization of an organism's superoxide level is one of the molecular mechanisms of bio-normalizer activity.