A method for enhancing the overall beneficial
immune system response in a host that works in conjunction with the host's natural
immune system response to simultaneously enhance the host's ability to eliminate infectious microbes while suppressing the
toxicity of the
immune system response to the host. The method utilizes the non-enzymatic formation of
allicin in response to the localized generation of H2O2 by immune
system cells (such as neutrophils) to simultaneously increase the
antimicrobial effect while reducing the
cytotoxicity to the host. It is shown that enzymes can be reversibly inhibited that would not normally be sensitive to deactivation by a
thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. This results in part from the recognition that deactivation of SH dependant enzymes by
allicin does not take place by the previously attributed mechanism of
thiol-disulfide exchange reactions.
Allicin,
cysteine, and related
organosulfur compounds have a variety of
antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties that work together with the host's immune
system in the prevention and treatment of
disease. Prophylactic and
therapeutic treatment is provided by administering an
allium-related organosulfur compound such that a localized
thiosulfinate is caused to be non-enzymatically formed in response to localized generation of H2O2 by the activated immune
system cells.
Allicin,
cysteine and related
organosulfur compounds may be simultaneously delivered in an efficient manner through the use of
protein-bound S-AllylMercaptoCysteine (SAMC) or similar prodrugs.