Positive Health Online

DNA and Gene Expression

In recent years, particularly since completion of the Human Genome Project (sequencing of human DNA), there have been major advances in the understanding of the structure and function of human DNA. For example, scientists have now discovered that human DNA contains around 22,000 genes. Among them are genes that synthesise all the gene products or proteins that are needed to support life and development from gametic (egg and sperm) fusion to death. It is now known that more than 100,000 different proteins are needed to accomplish all these cellular requirements. Scientists have also discovered genes that cause many diseases and others that help restore and maintain health and others that need to be expressed at specific times throughout life to help maintain optimum health.

When the chemistry of DNA was first discovered in the early 1950s it was thought that one gene could only make one protein. Now, it is clearly established that many genes can actually make many proteins by a process called alternative splicing. Thus far, the instructions that are needed to determine which alternative gene splice product a gene should produce at any particular time are not well understood.

In any particular cell, only a few of the 22,000 genes need to be active or expressed at the correct level at the right time to maintain it in a healthy state. Serious diseases such as cancer can be caused if the wrong genes are expressed or if some genes are over-expressed or under-expressed, or if some of the genes are expressed at the wrong time. So, to maintain optimum health it is critical that gene expression is under tight control.

There are many ways already known by which gene expression can be controlled, such as DNA methylation and DNA compaction. One of the most important gene-controlling mechanisms recently discovered involves a new type of RNA called RNAi or the interference RNA system. Because of the significance of the control of gene expression with regard to disease resolution and health promotion, the discovery of the RNA interference system is about to revolutionize pharmacological approaches to health care.[1]

There is no doubt that other gene controlling mechanisms are yet to be discovered. In fact, genes occupy only about 3% of the whole human genetic blueprint; there is a lot yet to be discovered about the workings of the remaining 97% of non-coding DNA.

Homeopathy and Gene Expression

It is now recognized that homeopathic remediation can affect gene expression because, in an in vivo setting, in the absence of pharmacological intervention, biological changes such as disease remediation and promotion of disease symptoms (as in the proving process and in some aggravations) must be driven by activation (or deactivation) of specific genes that synthesize the proteins (enzymes, hormones and inflammatory mediators, for example) that are needed to bring about those changes. It therefore follows that some homeopathic remedies must have the capacity to promote changes in gene activity. So, it has become very important to understand more about the gene targeting capabilities of homeopathic substances.

Using highly sophisticated molecular biological technologies, Sunila and colleagues[2] have now confirmed in an in vitro setting that highly diluted substances such as plant and tissue extracts do have the capacity to boost gene expression in a specific way. For example, they have shown that the nosode carcinosinum mother tincture is one of the homeopathic remedies that can increase expression of the important anti-cancer gene p53. The p53 gene is responsible for enabling abnormal cells, such as cancer cells to self destruct through a process called apoptosis. Fortunately, carcinosinum appears to be unable to induce expression of the anti-apoptotic gene bcl-2.[2] This finding is important because it illustrates that homeopathic induction of gene expression has an element of specificity.

One of the ways to slow down the growth of cancer cells is to inhibit synthesis of DNA. Interestingly, the mother tinctures of some homeopathic remedies[2] have the capacity to slow down the synthesis of DNA in tumour derived cell lines and consequently suppress their growth or proliferation. As a consequence, it is important to determine whether the same remedies slow down the growth or proliferation of healthy cells, because unhindered growth of normal healthy cells is important for proper development and efficient repair of damaged tissue.

Similar findings have also been found by Frenkel and colleagues[3] who also demonstrated that, using in vitro molecular biological techniques, homeopathic preparations such as carcinosinum can induce expression of genes that can slow down the proliferation or growth of breast cancer cells.

Homeopathic DNA and Gene Expression

The use of highly diluted DNA is well established in homeopathic practice. It is included in provings and materia medicas such as those compiled by Dr AO Julian and Dr R Murphy. Homeopathic DNA however, is derived from various sources: sometimes fish, other species and sometimes plants. It includes a wide range of DNA molecules with unknown nucleotide sequences, including foreign DNA and mutated DNA molecules that may vary from one manufacturer to another depending on their source of DNA.

Homeopathic DNA targets genes that reduce the symptoms of disease. It also affects expression of genes that cause disease. That is so because it induces symptoms of disease in healthy subjects, the proving process.

Micro-Immunotherapy

In an attempt to increase the specificity and safety of gene targeting by highly diluted DNA, Dr Marichal developed a remedial gene targeting system that used only highly diluted pure DNA molecules with defined sequences. The DNA molecules were designed to target immune response genes to help fight infections and control the infectivity of viruses. His novel New Homeopathic gene targeting system, referred to as Micro-Immunotherapy[4], proved highly successful.

Micro-DNA Therapy

The Homeovitality Micro-DNA therapeutic system was developed to take advantage of new healthcare discoveries using the principles of Homeopathy and New Homeopathic Micro-Immunotherapy. It uses highly diluted DNA molecules with precise sequences to target genes, parts of the genetic blueprint that have been proven to promote and support health and correct disease.

The Homeovitality system is safe because, unlike homeopathic DNA, it cannot target parts of the genetic blueprint or genes that cause disease. In this context, even though it is simply a refinement of the use of homeopathic DNA, it is not strictly homeopathic because it cannot induce symptoms of disease in healthy subjects. It cannot cause aggravations in disease sufferers.

It is also a refinement of the use of homeopathic DNA and Micro-Immunotherapy because it has the added advantage that it has been designed to target health promoting genes whose activity declines with age such as KL[5] and genes that promote natural super health or heterosis such as CTR[6].

What is Natural Super Health?

Natural super health also known as heterosis occurs in all organisms. It is the highest level of health that can be achieved naturally. Scientists have been trying to work out for well over a hundred years how natural super health is driven. It is now recognized that there are a number of ways. One of them involves a natural process that increases the expression of genes that play a very significant role in health promotion. It is not yet clear how increased expression of these super health promoting genes is naturally brought about as yet.

Even though farmers have been taking advantage of natural super health to breed fitter and healthier crops and animals for thousands of years, it is only in the last few years that scientists have discovered that humans also enjoy the benefits of natural super health. They are also beginning to discover some of the genes that promote different forms of natural super health in humans. The Micro-DNA therapy system is designed to take these findings into account.

The Homeovitality Micro-DNA therapy system also takes advantage of the recent findings that DNA molecules have unusual telepathic properties and can emit sequence specific electromagnetic signals at dilutions ranging from 10 ^-5 to 10 ^-12, the latter dilution being equivalent to 6C, the very dilution used exclusively in the Homeovitality range. The electromagnetic signals can be recognized by DNA molecules with the same sequence.[7]

Safety Perspectives

Healthcare practitioners have questioned the safety of the Homeovitality Micro-DNA therapy system because it has the potential to alter gene expression. Many practitioners do not realize though that, as indicated above, homeopathic remedies are already doing that in a much less controlled way.

Other factors that Affect Gene Expression

It is now known that many environmental and nutritional factors can influence gene expression. People willingly and unwittingly expose themselves to agents that disturb optimum gene expression on a daily basis. There are many food components that can interact directly or indirectly with the genetic blueprint and affect the expression of many of our genes, some of which promote disease. For example, nutritional factors such as some phytonutrients can dysregulate the expression of a set of genes that produce kinases, a family of proteins that are involved in metabolism. Alterations in kinase gene expression are associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and in particular cancer.[8]

DNA methylation, a natural chemical modification of DNA, plays a major role in co-ordinating gene expression, particularly during development. Ineffective DNA methylation also plays a key role in development of cancer and many other diseases. Efficiency of DNA methylation, and thus optimum development, depends very much on having a sufficient dietary intake of the essential amino acid methionine, found mainly in meat and fish. That is why a vegetarian diet, partially deficient in the amino acid methionine, may affect development and cause major developmental defects such as neural tube abnormalities in the early stages of life.[9]

There are many other food components that have been found to influence expression of many genes that affect health. The well established study of food/genome interactions is called nutrigenomics.

Even thought processes can have a marked effect on gene expression via the psychobiological gene expression system.[10]

Homeopathy / Dietary Interactions

Now that it is clear that homeopathic remediation as well as food components can affect the expression of many genes (some of which cause disease, make diseases worse, protect against or even correct disease), it becomes important for homeopaths (and other alternative health care practitioners) to understand more about how genes work. More importantly, advances in alternative health care practices, with regard to safety and efficacy, will follow by determining the gene targeting specificities of particular remedies.

Once more is known about the gene targeting capabilities of different homeopathic remedies, it follows that the efficacy and safety of the practice will be able to be improved when nutritional factors are taken into account. For example, the efficacy of homeopathic and new homeopathic remedies that are found to target genes that boost immunity and the general inflammatory response may be reduced by intake of dietary components that are known to suppress the inflammatory response. Similarly, remedies that are used to reduce disease symptoms by suppressing inflammation may be counteracted by food components that are pro-inflammatory.

Research into Homeopathy / Nutritional Interactions

Quite clearly, in the context of control of gene expression, there are great possibilities ahead to improve the safety and efficacy of homeopathy when nutritional factors are taken into account. In this regard, the Homeovitality Learning centre is about to establish a scientifically based research programme to investigate the relationship between homeopathy, nutrition and the genetic blueprint.

References.

1. Chaturvedi et al., Cyclodextrin-based siRNA delivery nanocarriers: a state-of-the-art review. Expert Opin. Drug Deliv. Aug 26, 2011. [Epub ahead of print].

2. Sunila et al., Dynamized preparations in cell culture. Evidence-Based Comp. Alt. Med., 6:257. 2009.

3. Frenkel et al., Cytotoxic effects of ultra-diluted remedies on breast cancer cells. Int J Oncol., 36: 395. 2010.

4. www.complementary-medicine.com/NewHomeopathy2.htm

5. Witkowski et al. Klotho- a common link in physiological and rheumatoid arthritis-related aging of human CD4+ lymphocytes. J. Immunol. 178:771. 2007.

6. Taboulet et al. Calcitonin receptor polymorphism is associated with a decreased fracture risk in post-menopausal women. Hum. Molec. Genet . 7: 2129. 1998.

7. Montagnier et al. Electromagnetic signals are produced by aqueous nanostructures derived from bacterial DNA sequences. Interdiscip. Sci. Comput. Life Sci. DOI:10.1007/s12539-009-0036-7. 2009.

8. Kilpinen et al., Analysis of kinase gene expression patterns across 5681 human tissue samples reveals functional genomic taxonomy of the kinome. PLoS ONE 5:2010. e15068. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015068. 2010.

9. Shoob et al., Dietary methionine is involved in the etiology of neural tube defect-affected pregnancies in humans. J. Nutrition. 131:2653. 2001..

10. Rossi E. The psychobiology of gene expression. WW Norton & Company, New York. ISBN 0393-70343-6. 2002.

Further Information

The Homeovitality Learning centre is about to establish a scientifically based research programme to investigate the relationship between homeopathy, nutrition and the genetic blueprint. Practitioners who would like to participate in this research, please contact the Learning Centre at www.homeovitalitycentre.com  to express your interest or write to Dr. Peter H Kay, the research co-ordinator at peterhkay@gmail.com .

Practitioner Course

Because of the significance of recent scientific discoveries and subsequent considerations that affect the practice of homeopathy, the Homeovitality Learning Centre has developed a world first scientifically based course so that practitioners can enable their clients to benefit from these new discoveries as safely as possible. For more details about the course, please see the Courses section of this publication [ www.positivehealth.com/course/ongoing-course-new-homeopathic-micro-dna-therapy  ]  and visit www.homeovitalitycentre.com  and see New Homeopathic Micro-DNA Therapy (NDTP) course. Practitioners are already finding the course of great value.