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For the
first time in biology, a team of researchers at The Scripps
Research Institute (TSRI), California is reporting that the
human body makes ozone. Led by Professor Paul Wentworth, Jr,
Ph.D., the team has been slowly gathering evidence over the last
few years that the human body produces the reactive gas—most
famous as the ultraviolet ray-absorbing component of the ozone
layer—as part of a mechanism to protect it from bacteria and
fungi.
This
was a completely unexpected development, since for the last 100
years, immunologists believed that antibodies—proteins
secreted into the blood by the immune system—acted only to
recognize foreign pathogens and attract lethal "effector"
immune cells to the site of infection. Two years ago, Lerner
& Wentworth demonstrated that antibodies are capable top
produce ozone and other chemical oxidants when they are fed with
singlet oxygen (a reactive form of O2). Last year, Babior,
Lerner & Wentworth evidenced that oxidants produced by
antibodies can destroy bacteria by poking holes in their cell
walls. Now, Babior & Wentworth found where the singlet
oxygen comes from ~ it’s the Neutrophils, one of the effector
immune cells which are little cellular factories that produce
singlet oxygen and other oxidants. Their research work got
recently published in one of the most prestigious science
journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Ozone
is a reactive form of oxygen that exists naturally as a trace
gas in the atmosphere. It is perhaps best known for its crucial
role absorbing ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere, where
it is concentrated in a so-called ozone layer, protecting life
on earth from solar radiation. Ozone is also a familiar
component of air in industrial and urban settings where the gas
is a hazardous component of smog. However, ozone has never
before been detected in biology.
Ozone
is also reported to be a selective & rapid oxidizer of
viruses (HIV, Herpes simplex and zoster, cytomegalovirus,
Epstein-Barr, myxoviruses & retroviruses), bacteria (coliform
& staphylococcus) and virally infected cell membranes.
Healthy self cells may be spared because they have the built in
protection of the oxidation buffers, tocopherol, ascorbic acid,
superoxide dismutase (SOD), uric acid and glutathione peroxidase.
It has been documented that cancer cells have little or no
expression of oxidation buffer enzymes, catalase, SOD &
peroxidase. Hence ozone is particularly damaging to cancerous
cells.
The
question still remained, however, as to how the antibodies were
making the ozone. The TSRI team knew that in order to make the
ozone and other highly reactive oxidants, the antibodies had to
use a starting material known as singlet oxygen, a rare, excited
form of oxygen. During an immune response, the neutrophils,
where this singlet oxygen is generated, engulf and destroy
bacteria and fungi by blasting them with these oxidants.
The
work of the TSRI scientists suggests that the antibacterial
effect of neutrophils is enhanced by antibodies. In addition to
killing the bacteria themselves, the neutrophils feed singlet
oxygen to the antibodies, which convert it into ozone, adding
weapons to the assault.
The
research paper brings out something that is really new, but
there are still a million questions that follow. What does the
ozone do to the body's proteins and nucleic acids? Can
neutrophils make ozone without the antibodies? How long does
ozone last in the body? And, most importantly, how will these
discoveries help to cure disease? ...The research team continues
to investigate.
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 Bhaskar
Dutta, M.Sc. (Biotech) BHU, Varanasi, M.Tech. (Biotech), JU,
Kolkata
Correspondence:
Bhaskar Dutta,
C/o Vedachalam,
6-2/75, Vivek Nagar,
Kukatpally, Hyderabad 500072
Phone: 0 98492 31650
E-mail: bhaskar_dutta@softhome.net
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Mysteries
of Ozone in the Human Body