Natural antibodies to endotoxin in experimental and clinical oncology

The studies on natural endotoxin immunity, carried out at Preventive Immunology Laboratory of Institute of Oncology of Vilnius University have shown that the natural immune functions of both immunostimulated and immunosuppressed organisms are closely related to IgM class natural antibodies (IgMNA) to the enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) from membranes of intestinal microorganisms, i.e. endogenous or spontaneous antibodies to endotoxin. With aging, when cellular immunity functions deteriorate, the level of these NA to endotoxin (NAE) in blood serum increases. The population level of NAE is enhanced by carcinogens and chemotherapeutic drugs in dependence from their doses and downregulated by tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, exposure to environmental pollution, professional exposure to harmful agents, and chronic diseases. IgMNAE reflects enhancement of the natural immune functions of the organism on the background of the suppressed functions of classic cellular immunity and suits well to our new conception of elucidating the natural compensatory responses of immune homeostasis related to immune response to endotoxin.