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[Deleted member 81255]

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[Lisa]

From what I understand - it is at cross purposes to take immunity-boosting supplements while on an immunosuppressor...

The biggest thing my doctor told me (GP who specializes in rheumotology) to avoid getting sick is to wash my hands OFTEN and don't touch my hands to my face....avoid spreading germs....

 

[muppet]

Remicade blocks very specific factors in your immune system. I'm not sure vitamin C would have any interaction at all. A pharmacist would be the person to talk to for specifics.

 

[David]

While Vitamin C is found in high concentrations in immune cells and is used up rapidly when fighting off infections, they aren't exactly sure how it works but from what I recently read, "it has been hypothesized to modulate the activities of phagocytes, the production of cytokines and lymphocytees, and the number of cell adhesion molecules in monocytes."

Conversely, Remicade is an antibody that is used against TNFa which is a cytokine (protein molecule) involved in the immune response and creates inflammation.

So with that said, you got me curious and I googled, "Vitamin C TNFa" and came up with this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15554267

Interactions of the cell adhesion molecules are known to play important roles in mediating inflammation. The proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), activates the NF-kappaB signaling pathway, which induces the expression of various genes, such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). In this study, the effect of vitamin C on the ICAM-1 expression induced by TNF-alpha in a human neuroblastoma cell line, SK-N-SH was investigated. Treatment with vitamin C resulted in the downregulation of the TNF-alpha-induced surface expression and ICAM-1 mRNA levels in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, a gel shift analysis indicated that vitamin C dose-dependently inhibited the NF-kappaB activation and IkappaBalpha degradation induced by TNF-alpha. Taken together, these results suggest that vitamin C downregulates TNF-alpha-induced ICAM-1 expression via the inhibition of NF-kappaB activation.

So... one might hypothesize that Remicade and Vitamin C might be doing the same thing.

However, recent studies such as this one are showing that Remicade isn't affective for people with Crohn's because of what it does with TNFa but more because it causes death of T lymphocytes.

I didn't find anything interesting when Googling for "T lymphocytes Vitamin C".

In summary: I have no idea.

:dance: