%0 Journal Article
%T HDFx: A Novel Immunomodulator and Potential Superbug Super - Warrior for Hospitalized Patients
%A Altura BM
%J Vaccines and Research (IJVR)
%D 2018
%R http://dx.doi.org/10.19070/2572-7427-160003e
%X Over the past decade, a disturbing trend in antimicrobial resistance of both gram negative and gram-positive pathogens and "superbugs" has seriously complicated the treatment of many immuno-compromised, hospitalized patients [1-8]. Too this major problem must be added the numerous hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated meats, poultry, vegetables, seafoods, and dairy products [9-11]. Government resources, worldwide, are being overstretched and often remain powerless to combat these assaults on our populations. Almost one million people per year are killed by bacteria and "superbugs" due to antimicrobial resistance. If we add the untold millions per year who are dying from drug-resistant tuberculosis in Africa and India , the number of deaths becomes staggering. By about 2075, the number of people dying from drug-resistant infections could reach in excess of 35 million per year. Each year, in the USA alone, more than 150 million prescriptions are written, 60% of which are for antibiotics. Of these, it has been estimated that 50 million of these costly prescriptions are probably unnecessary [12]. Added to this is the ever-growing and soaring worldwide use of antibiotics in agriculture. How much of this indiscriminate use of antibiotics is contributing to the ever-growing resistance of pathogens to antibiotics noted above? Our laboratories have been working on a new approach to develop host-defense factors that stimulate various arms of the innate and adaptive immune systems. To this end, we have discovered a new host-defense factor, termed "HDFx", that is a conserved protein found in mice, rats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and sub-human primates [13-16]. We assume it is also present in humans since it is a conserved molecule. More than 135 years ago, Elie Metchnikoff, the great father of immunology, hypothesized that the body , under stressful circumstances, might produce powerful immuno-stimulants which perforce would act on different arms of the innate immune system and serve to protect against major insults and diseases [17]. Metchnikoff's early studies pointed to the important contributions of macrophages and phagocytic leukocytes to natural (innate) resistance against pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Over the past 30-40 years, considerable evidence has accumulated to support a strong relationship between the functional (physiological) state of the microcirculation, macrophages-phagocytes, natural killer (NK) cells, the reticuloendothelial system, and "pit cells" in the liver to host defense and resistance to pathogens, trauma, circulatory shock and
%K n/a
%U https://scidoc.org/IJVR-2572-7427-03-001e.php