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03.05.2025

More resistant to SARS-CoV-2 after short AHCC cycle | Animal data

If another wave of COVID is coming our way, consider using AHCC as a preventative measure. A short cycle arms the immune system against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, suggests an animal study published in Pathogens in 2023.

Study
Researchers at the University of Texas infected mice that had been genetically modified to have human ACE-2 receptors with a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Some of the mice were given a dose of AHCC, an extract containing bioactive substances from shiitake mushrooms, every other day for 8 days. If the mice had been adult humans, they would have received about 2-3 grams of AHCC each time.

After that week, the Texans infected the mice with a hefty dose of coronavirus.

Amino Up, the Japanese manufacturer of AHCC, helped fund the research.

Results
After infection, more than eighty percent of the mice in the control group died. In the group of mice that had received AHCC, only 40 percent died.

In the lungs of the mice that had received AHCC, the Texans found fewer virus particles than in the lungs of the other group. This is shown in the figure above. The researchers conclude from this that supplementation with AHCC has an antiviral effect.

In the lungs of the mice in the AHCC group, the researchers found also less of the inflammatory factors interleukin-6 and TNF-alpha than in the lungs of the control group.

Above you can see that AHCC also reduced the concentration of inflammatory factors in the brains of the mice. This is even more interesting in 2025 than it was in 2023.

The current variants of SARS-CoV-2, which somehow continue to circulate despite the extremely successful mass vaccinations with extremely safe & extremely effective vaccines, can reach the brain with increasing ease. With all the consequences that entails.

Mechanism
The researchers saw that AHCC changed the immune system of the mice. They saw, among other things, an increase in the number of gamma-delta T cells. They think that these changes make the immune system better able to cope with viruses.

Conclusion
"The oral administration of AHCC, a dietary supplement sourced from edible mushrooms, can be used as an immune enhancer to improve protective innate and adaptive immune factors and thus decrease virus infection and host susceptibility to COVID-19-induced severe diseases", the researchers summarize.

"Our results suggest that AHCC supplementation can serve as a novel treatment option to modulate host protective immunity and control both mild and severe cases of COVID-19 infection."

Source:
Pathogens. 2023 Apr 3;12(4):554.

More:
Does AHCC help against the coronavirus? 18.03.2020
AHCC increases chances of survival after being infected with a deadly virus 10.02.2020
Flu shot works better with AHCC 23.02.2013

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Immune System
Mushrooms
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