What is RNA? Why should you care about RNA? In other words, what can RNA fragments do for your health? And, if you’re a doctor, should you be recommending RNA fragments to patients? 

In the field of health and longevity, the work of those molecular biologists involved in the discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) is critical. That is because the discovery of DNA and RNA—known as polynucleotides—has enabled scientists to peer into the very nature of the cell, the building blocks of life. In the cell is the nucleus where DNA’s chromosomes and genes determine a large part of YOUR biological fate. Or so we thought.

Lately things have changed in the field of molecular biology and how we envision the code of life. These days, RNA reigns alongside DNA.

For many decades after the discovery of the helical structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953, scientists believed that this double helix with its duplex spiral, tiled stairwells made up of purine-pyrimidine base pairs of the genetic code contained the predetermined and unalterable blueprints of your biological fate. For nearly forty years, from the 1950s through the early 1990s, most scientists believed DNA used RNA only as a messenger molecule to reproduce this blueprint—i.e. that RNA was simply there as a messenger to carry this predetermined blueprint of your life. 

If there were errors and bad things happened, blame it on inherited imperfections in your DNA. This view held sway for a long time. 

This underlying belief, which established liberal guidelines and regulations for toxic chemicals in our environment, was actually very dangerous to your health. If nothing impacted DNA, not even toxic chemicals, by this logic, chemical carcinogens, of course, would be safe. There would be no consequences. There could be no environmental medicine. Although Rachel Carson launched the modern environmental movement, Mirko Beljanski, Ph.D. proved her right with his discovery of the effects of chemicals on the structure of our DNA and as the first to discover reverse transcriptase in bacteria and other advanced biological systems, well beyond the viral world where it was initially thought to only exist. Essentially, Carson was trying to warn us that the environment spoke to our bodies and damaged them. But how? Chemicals acting directly on DNA damaged their very structure, according to Beljanski who developed the Oncotest in order to screen such chemicals. And with his discovery of reverse transcriptase in life forms similar to us, he was first to show that RNA receives messages from the environment and takes these back into the DNA by morphing or transcribing itself into DNA. Hence, reverse transcriptase.  Beljanski’s Oncotest could detect carcinogens by their actions on the structure of DNA itself, usually long before a mutation. This is why Beljanski’s work, obviously not alone but along with other important researchers, helps to scientifically support the environmental movement and the argument for stronger regulations and chemical screening.

Mirko Beljanski, a research scientist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris became the first scientist to show that reverse transcriptase exists not only in viruses, but in other types of cells, including bacteria, fungus, and fish. His discovery of reverse transcriptase in these varied organisms was first in the world and toppled the notion of the inviolable, dominant nature of DNA. In fact so powerful were his findings that his work directly challenged the much acclaimed findings of the director of the Pasteur Institute, Jacques Monod, Ph.D., who himself had won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for showing the alleged supremacy of DNA. (The two men co-existed and Beljanski continued his work, though they were cool to each other; this story is captured in my new book about Beljanski [see sidebar].)

Because Beljanski was a master in the laboratory, he knew how to cleave a family of RNA into special fragments that to this day hold enormous and immediate promise for millions of cancer patients who are trying to get through full rounds of chemotherapy and radiation without suffering platelet declines. 

The first bit of good news came on January 8, 1979 when Mirko published a paper in French on the ability to induce or inhibit crown-gall tumor in plants with RNA fragments in C R Acad Sci Hebd Seances Acad Sci D. (put in full name of journal) Six months later, on June 19 in the same journal, he wrote that his laboratory had cleaved RNAs purified from a harmless strain of Escherichia coli that would be degraded by enzymes giving rise to RNA fragments of 10-80 nucleotides. What he described next was an inkling of how important his RNA fragments were to become. “In vitro, these fragments are efficiently transcribed into a complementary DNA…. In vivo, certain ’RNA-fragments-U2’ inhibit the development of plant tumors.” 

He took research from other biological systems. He focused on small types of RNA fragments that would not be converted into DNA nor be incorporated into it, in order not to take the risk of interfering with the normal program of the cell, which is of major importance.

There is a family of small RNA called primer RNA which are able just to boost the DNA replication, nothing else. After which they are released into the cell pool where they are destroyed. The necessary requirement is that the primer sequence is complementary to the DNA sequence at the priming site.

In the July-August 1983 issue of Cancer Treat Rep (put in full name of journal) he reported that short-chain RNA fragments “restore a normal level of circulating leukocytes in rabbits with high doses of cyclophosphamide (CP),” a chemotheraphy drug. “Granulocyte/lymphocyte balance, upset by daily CP administration, is also restored during the increase of both types of cells. No toxicity is observed, and numerous repeated doses of RNA fragments show no cumulative effect and do not lead to loss of leukopoietic stimulating activity. Tumor-bearing mice can be protected by RNA fragments against the toxic effect of CP without impeding the anticancer activity of this drug.” 

These findings, although preliminary, provided a wealth of information on RNA fragments. Note the overall immune support benefits. Even under stress with this powerful chemotherapy drug, CP, the RNA fragments were keeping granulocytes, lymphocytes and leukocytes all at healthy levels. 

Yet, these same fragments did not interfere with the important cancer-killing work of CP (nor do they with other drugs according to the research). 

He had found a perfect complementary therapy. Beljanski published more studies on RNA fragments. 

In 2008 the RNA fragments were proven highly effective at maintaining healthy levels of platelets during a larger scale clinical trial at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, supervised by James Grutsch, Ph.D., the clinical trials coordinator at the CTCA. Grutsch explained that RNA fragments “speak” directly to the DNA of the bone marrow where our white blood cells are birthed. Since they just catalyze the normal reaction (they are not transcribed into DNA) they maintain a healthy DNA in the bone marrow and normal levels of blood-clotting platelets. Usually during chemo or radiation people’s platelets dip dangerously low inhibiting completion of their rounds of therapy. So this finding is important to literally millions of cancer patients worldwide. (This alone is strong enough reason to speak out frequently about the RNA fragments, as I believe it should be used routinely in such therapies as part of complementary and alternative medicine.)

At the same time, in an interview, Dr. Grutsch called RNA fragments specifically a food. And he is right. The Food and Drug Administration allows for their use in infant formula recognizing their value for improving overall health. A publication notes, “Nucleotides are metabolically important compounds that are the building blocks of ribonucleic acid (RNA), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP),and are present in breast milk. It is thought that they may enhance immune function and development of the gastrointestinal tract and may be beneficial when added to infant formula.”

I am among the world’s leading researchers into supercentenarians in my work at the University of California, and what I also find fascinating about the Beljanski RNA fragments is their overall support for immune health and the dramatic implications this should have for a wide range of patients who are undergoing stressful periods in their lives, suffering from immune compromising conditions, or exposed to potentially toxic pollutants. 

To understand how far reaching these implications are you need to understand the many roles of white blood cells in the human body. There are several different types of white blood cells. But the RNA fragments have been shown to maintain healthy overall levels in some types of white blood cells. This enables your immune system to do its job and keep you healthy. 

The RNA derived from harmless E. coli maintains healthy neutrophils, which defend against harmful bacteria and fungi. Nuetrophils are usually first responders to microbial infection (their activity and death in large numbers forms pus). The RNA fragments also support healthy populations of eosinophils, which primarily deal with parasites. Eosinophils are also the predominant inflammatory cells in allergic reactions.  Particularly noteworthy is the ability of RNA fragments to maintain healthy lymphocytes including B cells, CD4+ (helper) T cells, and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells. This family helps to coordinate, mark and attack infected and damaged cells and get rid of them. The RNA fragments maintained natural killer cell activity. With all of this activity, it is clear that RNA fragments can help people to keep healthy immune function. There is nothing that you can consume that speaks so directly to the immune system. It should be further noted that other types of RNA fragments the CTCA tested did not provide benefits. Dr. Beljanski found a natural way to manufacture stimulating purine-rich nucleotides from Escherichia coli K12 (recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a totally innocuous strain).

In the July 1992 issue of Surgery, researchers noted that intake of arginine, RNA, and omega-3 fatty acids improved the health gastrointestinal surgery patients. “These results suggest that postoperative enteral nutrition with supplemental arginine, RNA, and omega-3 fatty acids instead of a standard enteral diet significantly improved immunologic, metabolic, and clinical outcomes in patients with upper gastrointestinal malignancies who were undergoing major elective surgery.”

Many substances in the environment have a potentially destructive effect on white blood cells, the main agents of the immune defenses. As a biochemist, Mirko. Beljanski knew that any cell, in order to duplicate, needs special and specific ‘primers’ to catalyze cell duplication. He prepared short fragments of RNA primers according to the model of what the healthy body provides for normal cell multiplication in a selective and specific manner, and which do not interfere with other cells. Dr. Beljanski developed ReaLBuild according to what a healthy body provides naturally to support the body’s immune system and to help boost the generation of white blood cells.   They simply support the body’s immune system to help boost the cells which naturally enhance the generation of white blood cells and platelets. But they are of critical importance, I believe, to anybody interested in immune health and particularly for cancer patients globally who must undergo the harsh treatments prescribed and need platelet health support. ®

Mirko Beljanski spent the major portion of his professional life in the labs at the Pasteur Institute, France. He published 133 peer-reviewed research reports, many of which are available on-line at www.PubMed.gov. For other publications not available on PubMed.gov, please refer to www.beljanski.com, the website of the Beljanski Foundation. To learn more about ReaLBuild® please visit Natural Source International, Ltd. At www.natural-source.com.   

We are fortunate, indeed, to be able to use his findings for our own personal health.

 

PHASE I CLINICAL TRIAL on the ACTIVITY of REALBUILD®

The ReaLBuild® Clinical Trial Phase I, conducted at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is now terminated. The CTCA team is very enthusiastic about the results, and a publication is forthcoming. A Phase II Protocol is now being discussed.