The Gut-Brain Connection (Chiropractic Continuing Ed Track registrants only)
It is well assessed that the evolutionary formation of a complex gut microbiome in mammals has played an important role in enabling brain development and sophisticated social interaction. Thus, changes of the gut microbiome are thought to be involved in ASD onset and progression. In addition to the gut microbiome, the role of the brain microbiome is becoming all the more relevant, and we recently postulated that alterations of the newly discovered brain lymphatic system may be related to disruption of the balance between the gut and the brain microbiomes with consequences in brain development. Since microbes circulate between the gut and the brain in association with macrophages, stimulation of macrophage function appears to be essential in re-establishing a proper balance between the two microbiomes. We recently discovered that the therapeutic properties of the Gc-Macrophage Activating Factor (Gc-MAF), are not due to the Gc-protein, but rather to a supramolecular complex of a glycosaminoglycan (GAG), vitamin D and fatty acids. This led us to reconstitute a MAF without the protein moiety, thus greatly improving its efficacy.
Marco Ruggiero, MD, PhD
Marco Ruggiero was born in Firenze, Italy in 1956. He graduated from the School of Medicine, in 1980. He has a PhD in Molecular Biology and a specialization in Diagnostic Radiology. He served in the Army as Medical Officer. In 1984-1986 he worked at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology of Burroughs Wellcome Co, where he published a paper in PNAS sponsored by Nobel Laureate Sir John Vane.
He worked at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, where he performed research on oncogenes and signal transduction. He returned to Italy as Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Firenze until his retirement in 2014. He moved to Arizona in 2015.
Together with his wife Dr. Stefania Pacini, he is the inventor of the probiotic yogurt “Bravo”, and its derivatives. Marco Ruggiero has invented “Rerum”, a powerful, non-protein, Macrophage Activating Factor (MAF) and has developed the Ruggiero-Klinghardt Protocol.
