Excerpt:
“Taken together, these results indicate that thimerosal-induced neurotoxicity occurs through the JNK-signaling pathway, independent of cJun activation, leading ultimately to apoptotic cell death.”
- April 17, 2006
Toxicants
Excerpt: “Coproporphyrin levels were elevated in children with autistic disorder relative to control groups…the elevation was significant. These data implicate environmental toxicity in childhood autistic disorder.”
- April 5, 2006
Excerpt: “Our findings that DCs primarily express the RyR1 channel complex and that this complex is uncoupled by very low levels of THI with dysregulated IL-6 secretion raise intriguing questions about a molecular basis for immune dyregulation and the possible role of the RyR1 complex in genetic susceptibility of the immune system to mercury.”
“Dendritic cells are exquisitely sensitive to Thimerosal, with one mechanism involving the uncoupling of positive and negative regulation of Ca2+ signals contributed by RyR1.”
- March 16, 2006
Excerpt:
“In this study, we show that thimerosal, at nanomolar concentrations, induces neuronal cell death through the mitochondrial pathway.”
- December 21, 2005
Autoimmunity / Detoxification / Genes / Glutathione / Mercury / Methionine / Oxidative Stress / Pregnancy / Thimerosal / Toxicants
Excerpt:
“Recently, it was found that autistic children had a higher mercury exposure during pregnancy due to maternal dental amalgam and thimerosal-containing immunoglobulin shots. It was hypothesized that children with autism have a decreased detoxification capacity due to genetic polymorphism. In vitro, mercury and thimerosal in levels found several days after vaccination inhibit methionine synthetase (MS) by 50%. Normal function of MS is crucial in biochemical steps necessary for brain development, attention and production of glutathione, an important antioxidative and detoxifying agent. Repetitive doses of thimerosal leads to neurobehavioral deteriorations in autoimmune susceptible mice, increased oxidative stress and decreased intracellular levels of glutathione in vitro. Subsequently, autistic children have significantly decreased level of reduced glutathione. Promising treatments of autism involve detoxification of mercury, and supplementation of deficient metabolites.”
- October 1, 2005
Excerpt:
“The promoters of genes up-regulated by aluminum are enriched in binding sites for the stress-inducible transcription factors HIF-1 and NF-kappaB, suggesting a role for aluminum, HIF-1 and NF-kappaB in driving atypical, pro-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic gene expression. The effect of aluminum on specific stress-related gene expression patterns in human brain cells clearly warrant further investigation.”
- September 20, 2005
Excerpts:
“However, testosterone which appeared protective at very low levels (0.01 to 0.1 micromolar), dramatically increased neuron death at higher levels (0.5 to 1.0 micromolar). In fact, 1.0 micromolar levels of testosterone that by itself did not significantly increase neuron death (red flattened oval), within 3 hours when added with 50 nanomolar thimerosal (solid circles) caused 100% neuron death.”
“These testosterone results, while not conclusive because of the in vitro neuron culture type of testing, clearly demonstrated that male versus female hormones may play a major role in autism risk and may explain the high ratio of boys to girls in autism (4 to 1) and autism related disorders.“
- August 29, 2005
Excerpt:
“Taken together these findings suggest deleterious effects on the cytoarchitecture by thimerosal and initiation of mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis.”
- May 24, 2005
Excerpt:
“A higher percentage of the total Hg in the brain was in the form of inorganic Hg for the thimerosal-exposed monkeys (34% vs. 7%).”
- April 21, 2005
Antioxidant / Flu Vaccine / Glutathione / Mercury / Methionine / NAC / Sulfhydryl Groups / Thimerosal / Toxicants
Abstract
Thimerosol is an antiseptic containing 49.5% ethyl mercury that has been used for years as a preservative in many infant vaccines and in flu vaccines. Environmental methyl mercury has been shown to be highly neurotoxic, especially to the developing brain. Because mercury has a high affinity for thiol (sulfhydryl (-SH)) groups, the thiol-containing antioxidant, glutathione (GSH), provides the major intracellular defense against mercury-induced neurotoxicity. Cultured neuroblastoma cells were found to have lower levels of GSH and increased sensitivity to thimerosol toxicity compared to glioblastoma cells that have higher basal levels of intracellular GSH. Thimerosal-induced cytotoxicity was associated with depletion of intracellular GSH in both cell lines. Pretreatment with 100 microM glutathione ethyl ester or N-acetylcysteine (NAC), but not methionine, resulted in a significant increase in intracellular GSH in both cell types. Further, pretreatment of the cells with glutathione ethyl ester or NAC prevented cytotoxicity with exposure to 15 microM Thimerosal. Although Thimerosal has been recently removed from most children’s vaccines, it is still present in flu vaccines given to pregnant women, the elderly, and to children in developing countries. The potential protective effect of GSH or NAC against mercury toxicity warrants further research as possible adjunct therapy to individuals still receiving Thimerosal-containing vaccinations.
- September 29, 2004
