Effects of Gc-Macrophage Activating Factor in Human Neurons; Implications for Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating disease of multifactorial aetiology characterized by immune system dysfunction, widespread inflammation, multisystemic neuropathology and persistent pain. Given the central role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of the syndrome, we studied the effects of a potent modulator of the immune system in in vitro and in vivo models that could help clarifying its role and indications in ME/CFS treatment. To this end, we studied the effects of vitamin D-binding protein-derived macrophage activating factor (also designated as GcMacrophage Activating Factor or (GcMAF)) on human neuronal cells (SH-SY5Y) and on the persistent pain induced by osteoarticular damage in rats. GcMAF at pM concentration increased neuronal cell viability and metabolism through increased mitochondrial enzyme activity. These effects were accompanied by cAMP formation and by morphological changes that were representative of neuronal differentiation. We hypothesize that these effects are to be ascribed to the interconnection between the GcMAF and Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) signalling pathways. The results presented here confirm at the experimental level the therapeutic effects of GcMAF in ME/CFS and elucidate the mechanisms of action through which GcMAF might be responsible for such therapeutic effects.

The Molecular Aspects of Functional Activity of Macrophage-Activating Factor GcMAF

“…Different research teams have reported the anticancer activity of the macrophage-activating factor [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. GcMAF was shown to have an ability to rectify neurodegenerative diseases including autism spectrum disorder [7,[20][21][22][23]. The conducted experiments demonstrate that the wide range of therapeutic properties of GcMAF is directly related to its impact on the macrophage [8,9,[24][25][26].…”

“…Those are examples of the so-called secondgeneration GcMAF, which actually is a mixture of enzyme-treated plasma proteins, and the so-called third-generation GcMAF, which is colostrum containing terminal, unbound GalNAc [26,[32][33][34]. In our early studies of GcMAF, we faced the complicacy of the procedure of isolating DBP from plasma and converting it to GcMAF [11,21,35,36]. In the present study, we elaborated the original method for both producing and converting GcMAF as well as analyzing its activation potency.…”