Doctor Patricia Kongshavn
From Mouse To Man. Dr Patricia Kongshavn Tells The Story of The Development of Immunocal
Patricia Kongshavn received her Honors Degree in Natural Sciences as a Major Scholar at Cambridge University, and completed her doctorate in Immunology at McGill University after immigrating to Canada. She subsequently joined the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University and held appointments in the Departments of Physiology and Medicine, becoming Full Professor in 1986. Her research was funded by independent grants to her from the Medical Research Council of Canada, the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the National Institutes of Health in the United States.
Her main research was concerned with increasing basic knowledge of the immune system, with a focus on cellular immunology, host/parasite interactions and the genetics of natural resistance.
In the mid-1970’s she began collaboration initiated by Dr. Gustavo Bounous to research the influence of various dietary proteins on immune responsiveness. They published their first paper on this research in 1978 and continued their collaboration until 1989, during which period they co-authored 14 papers. This work led to the discovery of the particular whey protein concentrate that regulated glutathione levels and promoted immune enhancing activity. This led ultimately to the production of the high quality natural product: IMMUNOCAL.
Dr. Kongshavn retired from McGill to relocate to the West in 1990 where she continues to consult and lecture on related topics.
From Mouse To Man
Dr Patricia Kongshavn Tells The Story of The Development of Immunocal
Dr. Patricia Kongshavn, research pioneer, along with Dr. Gustavo Bounous, was among the first to discover the effect of whey protein on the immune system. Here she brings us back to the beginning and tells her story of how Immunocal came to be developed.
In the mid 1970’s, I was a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University where I taught Immunology and Physiology. I devoted a major part of my time conducting research in Immunology. My particular line of research centered around increasing basic knowledge of the immune system, with a focus on T-cell mediated immunity as well as studying the genetics of natural resistance.
My own laboratory and research group was located in the Montreal General Hospital Research Institute that was part of the Department of Experimental Medicine. It was to this Institute that Dr. Gustavo Bounous, who was working at the University of Sherbrooke in the Department of Surgery at the time, came to do a sabbatical year. He was assigned to my laboratory and research group.
Gustavo was very interested in studying the effect of dietary amino acids on the immune system. We put together a study that we published in 1978 showing some minor changes in immune reactivity when different ratios of dietary amino acids were used. This study wasn’t particularly interesting but it allowed us the opportunity of setting up a good method of measuring small changes in immune reactivity.
Then, one day, Gustavo received a sample of a specially prepared whey protein and we thought we might as well test it in our mouse assay. We discovered that mice who were fed this whey protein had a significantly enhanced antibody response to our Sheep Red Blood Cell (SRBC) antigen. It took three weeks of whey protein feeding to gain the maximal effect after which it did not change. We further showed enhanced resistance to Salmonella infection since we had this model in the lab at the time. We published our findings in 1981. By this time, Gustavo had returned to the University of Sherbrooke to continue his work. My post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Mary Stevenson, and my graduate student, King Pang, were also involved in this study and did the actual experiments, along with our technicians. Interestingly, this paper didn’t get very high priority when we tried to publish it, and we were only allowed to publish a truncated version of the original full paper of 1981! Also, the company who had sent us the original sample was not very impressed with the results and dropped it. Therefore, after that, we went to Denmark and obtained a very pure source of whey protein.
At that time, I might add, whey protein was looked upon as cheap poor protein pig-feed, in fact. Gustavo once remarked to me “it shows what you can do with a ‘poor’ protein!” Of course, today we know that it is the best protein with the highest BV (biological value) of them all. It supplies all of the essential amino acids and in the best proportion for rebuilding tissue protein.
We then did a number of different studies to expand our findings. We looked at all the different edible proteins — casein, wheat, soy, corn, egg albumin, beef, fish, spirulina, and again, it showed that the whey protein was unique in its ability to enhance the immune response in mice. We had two publications, published in 1982 and 1985. We also showed that the enhanced effect of the whey protein did not influence the genesis of lymphocytes (i.e., when they are being produced in the lymphoid system) but rather during the clonal expansion of the lymphocytes after stimulation with an antigen. We did this work with Dr. Osmond, Chairman of Anatomy, whom I knew as he was an immunologist. We published this with Dr. Osmond and his student, Shenouda, in 1985.
We also tested resistance to Streptococcus pneumonia and I remember Gustavo calling me from Sherbrooke and telling me “it worked”. We added this to a later publication.
The next major finding was that our whey protein protected the mice against cancer. By now, Gustavo had transferred to the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. In the Department of Experimental Surgery where he was located, Dr Fleiszer had a mouse model of colon cancer that closely resembled the human form in histological appearance and response to chemotherapy. When the mice were given the chemical dimethyl hydrazine, they developed cancers in the colon that could be enumerated and their size could be determined. We showed that the mice fed the whey protein developed far fewer and much smaller tumors than did the control casein-fed counterparts. This was published in 1988. Also, a second publication followed showing that once cancer had developed, cancers shrunk in whey protein-fed mice.
The other major finding was that the whey protein had an anti-aging effect. This work was done in collaboration with another member in the MGH Research Institute who happened to be studying aging in mice, Dr. Francine Gervais. They found that mice essentially lived 40% longer.
At this point, we had a series of interesting findings but no explanation as to why the whey protein enhanced immunity. Then the experiments stopped working and this actually gave us the next clue. One day, Gustavo was watching TV and learnt that French farmers were up in arms because their cheeses were being spoiled as the temperature for pasteurization had been raised slightly. Was the active component in whey protein
sensitive to heat and somehow inactivated? It was then suggested to Gustavo by Dr. Gerry Batiste that perhaps our findings could be explained by the fact that whey protein is high in cysteine which is needed to make glutathione (GSH). And, as we all know, cysteine is sensitive to heat treatment.
So the definitive experiment was done in which it was shown that in mice fed a fresh batch of whey protein, the GSH values in the spleen and liver rose during their immune response to SRBC*, while in the control mice, GSH values fell during this time. A correlative study, in other words.
Gustavo and I had written an article for a book in 1986 reviewing all our work. However, this book wasn’t published until 1989 by which time we were able to add an addendum to the effect that our findings were likely due to the high cysteine content of whey protein, which is the limiting precursor for synthesizing GSH.
In 1987, I went on sabbatical to California for a year and before I left, Gustavo and I approached the Chief of Medicine about getting a patent. He became interested and, as a result, his name appears on articles and patents after this. It was he who introduced Gustavo to Dieter Beer.
Dieter has, I think, always had an interest in natural foods and he was sufficiently impressed to give both financial backing and time in order to develop a whey protein suitable for human consumption. The development took place in a dairy in Quebec and thus the product ‘Immunocal’ was produced. It was given a logo and trademarked as Immunocal®. As you know, it was originally sold in Canada as HMS 90. This name came from an article we had published in 1988 called Evolutionary Traits in Human Milk Proteins where we observe that human milk is unique in being almost entirely a whey milk (very little casein by comparison) and more closely resembles cow whey protein than cow whole milk. We also believe that this is Nature’s design for man — the low protein content and high whey protein promotes slow growth to maturity and longevity, allowing more time to develop mental skills, increased immunity and other benefits.
Then came the question of how to market Immunocal. But in the meantime, Immunocal was tested by doing a few small clinical trials — one showing the beneficial effects in adult HIV patients and another in children with AIDS showing weight increase and fewer infections. Also, one study by a Japanese group showed that Immunocal benefited hepatitis B patients.
Soon after, Dieter met Chuck Roberts and the company Immunotec Research Corporation. Ltd. was formed and, as they say, the rest is history!
Looking back, I am always intrigued by the thought that a number of fortuitous events happened without which the work that we did might have simply ended up as another interesting scientific observation, never exploited.
1. The arrival of the whey protein sample at a time when we had an assay already set up to measure changes in immune reactivity.
2. The time when our experiments failed, giving us the clue of heat sensitivity of the whey protein.
3. The introduction of Dieter Beer.
4. The meeting of Dieter Beer and Chuck Roberts.
Dr. Patricia Kongshavn received her Honors Degree in Natural Sciences as a Major Scholar
at Cambridge University, and completed her doctorate in Immunology at McGill University after immigrating to Canada. She subsequently joined the Faculty of Medicine at McGill
University and held appointments in the Departments of Physiology and Medicine, becoming Full Professor in 1986.
Her main research was concerned with increasing basic knowledge of the immune system, with a focus on cellular immunology, host/ parasite interactions and the genetics of natural resistance.
Dr. Kongshavn retired from McGill to relocate to Western Canada in 1990 where she continues to consult and lecture on related topics.
