SANUM Pharmaceuticals
The PLEO™ SAN Preparations

The Hapten Preparation PLEO™SAN TRICH:
Its Origins and Therapeutic Application

(This is the second in a new series of articles on PLEO™ preparations in Explore! For the Professional.)

© Copyright 2001 by Joachim Hartmann (biologist), Germany
(Explore Issue: Volume 10, Number 2)

PLEO™SAN TRICH is a hapten preparation derived from the dermatophyte Trichophyton verrucosum. This is a skin fungus primarily affecting cattle and other ruminant animals in the head region, thereby causing what is known as "bovine trichophytosis." Accordingly, human infection is almost always due to contact with infected animals and is confined primarily to farm workers. Stables and barnyard objects contaminated with hairs and skin scale serve as a fungal reservoir, since the agent remains infectious for years. Modern mass breeding techniques, with their poor stabling environment, favor the rapid spread of the agent throughout a herd, especially among young animals.

The macroscopic manifestations in man are characterized by strong acute inflammation. Circular erythematous foci appear, with increasing scaling, infiltration, pustules, exsudation and scab formation. Advanced cases exhibit highly inflamed, very painful nodular cutaneous/subcutaneous infiltrates along with abscess formation and localized adenitis. There may also be additional generalized symptoms such as fever and depression. Besides the Stratum corneum, the hairs can also become infested; the infection is even more severe with thick hair, as in beards. Local therapy alone is not enough, because the agent, nestled in the hair shafts, is practically inaccessible. Orthodox medicine prescribes strong antimycotics such as Griseofulvin. A severe inflammatory bovine trichophytosis infection is normally followed by increased defensive powers in the infected person.

A "dermatophytid" can also appear--far removed from the infection focus--as an allergic skin reaction; this is a lesion in which no active agent is to be found. The clinical manifestation forms are lichenoid or papulo-vesicular eruptions, which can also appear as an Erythema nodosum. This skin phenomenon was designated as Lichen trichophyticus by its discoverer, Jadassohn in 1918, and is today categorized as an "id-reaction." It is considered to be the result of a reaction between the circulating agent antigens and skin-sensitizing antibodies, and can be provoked, for example, by X-rays, local irritation or repeated massive contact with the antigens. The trichophytids can also appear, episodically, subcutaneously or in the mucous membranes; they are distributed symmetrically over the body and are occasionally accompanied by fever, leukocytosis and joint conditions. Successful treatment of the primary focus causes the id-reaction to disappear.

Autoimmune reactions following dermatophytosis have also been described. In these cases, a reaction was observed between the antifungal antibodies and epithelial tissue. These antibody reactions with the body's own tissue can be prevented by binding them with fungal extracts.

Extracts from dead Trichophyton verrucosum mycelia have been applied successfully in veterinary medicine, by subcutaneous administration to calves as a prophylactic measure; 88% of those inoculated did not catch bovine trichophytosis despite intimate contact with infected animals. The immunity lasted for three to five years.

In humans, a large-scale study showed that 78% of patients with profound trichophytosis could be healed by repeated SC administration--with no other therapy--of a special fungal extract (in this case from Trichophyton mentagrophytes). Topical application as prophylaxis against athlete's foot has also proven successful.

 

Interestingly, dimorphism has been observed in the Trichophyton species, i.e., in Candida albicans or Mucor racemosus. Here, the primary infection occurs by means of fungal hyphae working their way into minute skin lesions. Under the influence of tissue factors in the host, a morphological transition is made from fungal to yeast phase, which is then better adapted to growth conditions in the host and can better infiltrate deep into tissue, i.e., it has become more pathogenic.

Because of the action mechanism of the haptens contained in PLEO™SAN TRICH, it should be possible, using this preparation, to bind any antigens still circulating in the body during or after a dermatophyte infection and to eliminate them via the immune system. This treatment concept would eliminate the pathogenic factors of the trichophytids. Also, it should be possible to forestall potential autoimmune reactions, as the excess antibodies bind with the fungal haptens and thereby avoid tissue-destroying reactions with the body's own structures.

Chemical analysis has shown that the serologically active polysaccharides of antigen formation in Trichophyton verrucosum and the more strongly anthropophilic agents Trichophyton rubrum and T. mentagrophytes are very similar. Therefore, it seems likely that PLEO™SAN TRICH, besides bovine trichophytosis, can also work against diseases in the various manifestations of tinea, favus and kerion, which are caused by other Trichophyton species.

PLEO™SAN TRICH is approved for use in Germany as a 6X potentiation in drop form for internal and external use, and the 5X potentiation is available as an IM and SC injection in the Netherlands.

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