Green-tea study offers hope of AIDS drug...
Scientists in Texas and the United Kingdom have found that a chemical from green tea reduces HIV's ability to infect cells.
The scientists from the University of Sheffield and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston found that as little as two cups of green tea could provide enough of the chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) to inhibit HIV cell binding by 40%.
However, they do not recommend that people start drinking gallons of green tea as an HIV preventative. Rather, they are conducting research to find out if EGCG or a chemical like it would make a good HIV drug.
Epigallocatechin gallate is a catechin, one of a large family of chemicals called bioflavonoids that are found in tea, red wine, and many fruits and vegetables. Most are colored red or purple and/or taste bitter; many have antioxidant properties and have been investigated for some time as possible anticancer and cardiovascular drugs.
Baylor's Dr. Christina Nance and her team found that EGCG exerts a more direct effect on HIV infection. The molecule likes to bind to CD4, the cell-surface molecule which HIV first binds to as well.
This was discovered by Japanese scientists in 2003 , but by using computers to image the exact shape of the proteins and working out the electronic processes involved, Nance's team worked out that ECGC sticks to exactly the same amino acid (component) of the CD4 molecule as does gp120-the "docking module" of HIV.
"When it binds there, the gp120 envelope protein-and thus HIV- can't [bind]," Nance said. Her team's findings are published in a recent issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The history of HIV medicine is full of promising-looking compounds from plants that had some effect on the HIV virus in the test tube but, when tested in animals and humans, either produced no effect or only did so at toxic doses. The previous Japanese research had indicated that the same would be true of EGCG -- huge doses would be needed.
Green tea Wonders
MANHASSET, N.Y., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggested a component of green tea might be useful in treating severe sepsis -- an abnormal immune system response to a bacterial infection.
Haichao Wang and colleagues at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research studied the therapeutic effects of dozens of Chinese herbal compounds in reversing sepsis, which kills 225 ,000 people in the United States annually.
In a mouse study, the scientists found a green tea extract -- EGCG -- caused survival rates of mice suffering sepsis increased from 53 percent in those not receiving EGCG to 82 percent in those that did.
"Clinically, even if we could save 5 percent of patients, that would be huge," said Wang. "In this study, we saved 25 percent more animals with the green tea."The researchers said their findings could pave the way for clinical trials.
The study, conducted in collaboration with Wei Li and Dr. Andrew Sama chairman of emergency medicine at North Shore University Hospital, appears in the online journal PLoS One.
Method of Preparation
Simply put 3 grams (approximately one teaspoon) of loose Green Tea into a ceramic cup (6 ounces to 8 ounces) or inside the ceramic filter of the cup if there is one. Then pour freshly boiling water (for best results please use water at the temperature of 80 degrees Celsius or 170 degree Fahrenheit) into your ceramic cup. Put a cover on top of the cup, and let it sit for 3 minutes.
Appreciation of Green Tea is not limited to the taste of drinking. You can use your other senses as well. When you open the cover of the cup, smell the tea first to enjoy its pleasant aroma. Then take a look at the bright green color of the tea and you will find the leaves gently unfolding in your cup. Allow yourself to relax and slowly sip your first taste of the tea. Let it roll down your tongue and savor the subtle scent of the sweet grass. Slowly, you will enjoy every sip of your Green Tea.
When one third of the tea is all that is left in the cup, you can add more hot water. You can repeat the above procedure with the same loose Green Tea leaves up to three times or more.
