Homeopathic Medicine Effects on Human Genes
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/104
Professors at two leading Italian universities conducted research on Gelsemium, a popular homeopathic medicine, and found it to influence genetic expression associated with nerve cells, whether the dose was 2C, 3C, 4C, 5C, 9C, or 30C. Drug companies use these tests Samuel May 2014 Care Planto determine which drug can influence certain genes. This study verifies the deep physiological effect that homeopathic nanodoses have been found to influence. This research destroys the assumptions of the deniers of homeopathy that these nanodoses do not or cannot have significant physiological effects.
Abstract
Background
Gelsemium sempervirens L. (Gelsemium s.) is a traditional medicinal plant, employed as an anxiolytic at ultra-low doses and animal models recently confirmed this activity. However the mechanisms by which it might operate on the nervous system are largely unknown. This work investigates the gene expression of a human neurocyte cell line treated with increasing dilutions of Gelsemium s. extract.
Methods
Starting from the crude extract, six 100 × (centesimal, c) dilutions of Gelsemium s. (2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 9c and 30c) were prepared according to the French homeopathic pharmacopoeia. Human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were exposed for 24 h to test dilutions, and their transcriptome compared by microarray to that of cells treated with control vehicle solutions.
Results
Exposure to the Gelsemium s. 2c dilution (the highest dose employed, corresponding to a gelsemine concentration of 6.5 × 10-9 M) significantly changed the expression of 56 genes, of which 49 were down-regulated and 7 were overexpressed. Several of the down-regulated genes belonged to G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathways, calcium homeostasis, inflammatory response and neuropeptide receptors. Fisher exact test, applied to the group of 49 genes down-regulated by Gelsemium s. 2c, showed that the direction of effects was significantly maintained across the treatment with high homeopathic dilutions, even though the size of the differences was distributed in a small range.
Conclusions
The study shows that Gelsemium s., a medicinal plant used in traditional remedies and homeopathy, modulates a series of genes involved in neuronal function. A small, but statistically significant, response was detected even to very low doses/high dilutions (up to 30c), indicating that the human neurocyte genome is extremely sensitive to this regulation.
Background
Gelsemium sempervirens (Gelsemium s.), also called yellow jasmine, is a plant belonging to the Loganiaceae family. All parts of the plant contain the major active principle gelsemine as well as other toxic strychnine-related alkaloids, such as gelseminine and sempervirine [1-3]. In the phytotherapy literature, Gelsemium s. has been reported to show sedative, analgesic and anti-seizure properties [4,5] while in the homeopathic Materia Medica and literature, Gelsemium s. is described as a remedy for a variety of anxiety-like psychological and behavioral symptoms [6-9]. The anxiolytic, antidepressant and/or analgesic action of Gelsemium s. extracts and its purified components has been recently demonstrated in animal models [10-16]. Other reports in the literature suggest this plant species may exhibit anticancer and immune-modulating activity [17-20].
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