Wednesday, September 29, 2010

What Does Milk Thistle Do ?



WHAT DOES MILK
THISTLE DO?


Researchers now know why milk thistle
seems to help some of us with HCV.
It has been thought that silymarin, one of the herb’s ingredients, had an effect on fibrosis, but
actually it has a direct effect on the virus
itself.
It tends to inhibit the polymerase, and
prevents the virus from entering the cells and
from passing from cell to cell. It inhibited
HCV activity best with genotype 2a, and
somewhat with genotype 1b viruses, but it
did not inhibit replication of the virus in the
genotype 1a, 1b and 2a cell lines the researchers
used. It did block cell-to-cell
spread of the virus and the production of
infectious virions in a cell culture.


"Although inhibition of in vitro NS5B polymerase
activity is demonstrable, the
mechanisms of silymarin's antiviral action
appear to include blocking of
virus entry and transmission, possibly by
targeting the host cell."
k

Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/10.1002/hep.23587/abstract June 2010,


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