Toxic Overload: Assessing the Role of Mercury in Autism - Boyd Haley

[Guest guest]

Excellent (other than this statement......... " I would like to state here

that I am a very strong supporter of the national vaccine program, and that

nothing in this article should be construed to imply that parents should

avoid getting their children vaccinated. " - I doubt if Boyd Haley thinks

that now, but I could be wrong - so many scientists and doctors working

with us feel they have to say this so they won't be totally

disregarded...........Sheri)

http://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/vaccines/toxic.html

Toxic Overload: Assessing the Role of Mercury in Autism

By Boyd E. Haley

Issue 115, November/December 2002

From 1996 to 1997, J. Curtis Pendergrass, PhD, did some experiments in my

research laboratory at the University of Kentucky that confirmed the

toxicity of thimerosal in vaccines. The results appeared on our website

(www.altcorp.com), where they attracted the attention of some parents of

autistic children.

These parents informed me that increased mandatory vaccination of infants

was, in their opinion, the cause of an apparent epidemic of autism. This

was the first time I had heard of this situation. The rationale for

considering vaccinations as the cause of their children's problems seemed

sensible and worth an investigation. I would like to state here that I am a

very strong supporter of the national vaccine program, and that nothing in

this article should be construed to imply that parents should avoid getting

their children vaccinated. But I do recommend avoiding vaccines that

contain thimerosal.

My laboratory was well experienced in mercury research. We had earlier

demonstrated that mercury, when exposed to normal human brain tissue

homogenates, is capable of causing many of the same biochemical aberrancies

found in Alzheimer's diseased (AD) brains.1-4 Also, rats exposed to mercury

vapor show the same major protein aberrancy as AD brains. Specifically, the

rapid inactivation of important brain enzymes occurs following the addition

of low levels of mercury or exposure to mercury vapor, and these same

enzymes are significantly inhibited in AD brains.5 Also, mercury exposure

to neurons in culture by other researchers, at a concentration lower than

that found in many human brains, has now been shown to produce three of the

widely accepted pathological diagnostic hallmarks of AD.6,7

Therefore, we hypothesized that exposure to mercury is involved in the

etiology of AD, or at least would exacerbate this disease. We also proposed

that other heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium, which act

synergistically to enhance the toxicity of mercury, could be involved.

Additionally, we proposed that exposure to organic-mercury compounds like

methyl mercury from fish and ethyl mercury from thimerosal would also

enhance the toxicity of any exposure to mercury. The early work of Dr.

Pendergrass confirmed this with pure thimerosal, with some interesting

additional observations. First, in human brain samples the exposure to

mercury dramatically reduced the viability of a major brain protein called

tubulin, but had little if any effect on another major protein, actin. Both

tubulin and actin are critically important for the growth of dendrites or

maintenance of axon structures of neurons. Exposing neurons to mercury

rapidly results in the stripping of tubulin from the axon structure,

leaving bare neurofibrils that form the tangles that are the diagnostic

hallmark of AD. Thimerosal, like mercury, also rapidly reduces the

viability of tubulin; in addition, however, it abolishes the viability of

actin. This likely represents a major difference in the mechanism of

mercury versus organic-mercury (more neurotoxic) toxicity. However, both

mercury and organic-mercury inhibit tubulin viability and would work in

concert to damage neurons of the central nervous system.

We therefore decided to investigate vaccines with and without thimerosal

present as a preservative, using human brain tissues. To date the data have

been very consistent: the toxicity of the vaccines is primarily dependent

on the presence of thimerosal and, in my opinion, would be classified as

severely toxic to numerous brain proteins. In the spring of 2001 these data

were presented to the Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review

Committee, which concluded its analysis by suggesting that thimerosal

involvement in autism was a plausible hypothesis. Since then I have formed

a collaboration with one of my colleagues, Mark Lovell, PhD, who uses

cultured neurons in some of his experiments. Using his cultured neuron

system, we studied the extent of neurotoxicity of pure thimerosal and of

vaccines with and without thimerosal present. The experiments were done as

follows: Neurons were grown in culture for 24 hours. Then pure thimerosal

or vaccines were added to test cultures. The death of neurons was observed

for the next 24 hours and compared to the death of neurons in the absence

of toxicant.

The results were almost identical to the results observed with brain

tissues: vaccines with thimerosal present were much more toxic than

thimerosal-free vaccines. Pure thimerosal was toxic at the low nanomolar

level--an extremely low concentration, about 10,000 times less than the

thimerosal concentration found in most vaccines. These results leave little

doubt about thimerosal being the toxic agent in the vaccines. However, many

vaccines contain aluminum ions that have neurotoxic properties, and

aluminum was once considered a factor in AD etiology. So we tested aluminum

in the same system.

Aluminum is not nearly as toxic to neurons in culture as is thimerosal.

However, we had earlier observed with mercury that the presence of other

metals would enhance toxicity. Experiments were done to determine if

aluminum would increase the toxicity of very low levels of thimerosal. The

results were unequivocal: the presence of aluminum dramatically increased

the rate of neuronal death caused by thimerosal. Therefore, the aluminum

and thimerosal combination found in vaccines produces a toxic mixture that

cannot be compared to situations where thimerosal alone is the toxic

exposure.

The enhanced toxicity of thimerosal created by the addition of aluminum

represents a problem with all forms of mercury toxicity. Synergism of toxic

metals is well known. A slightly toxic solution of lead, mixed with a

slightly toxic solution of mercury, results in a very toxic mixture. This

is similar to the enhanced adverse reactivity to thimerosal found in

optomological solutions, when subjects were prescribed to take the

antibiotic tetracycline. For some reason, tetracycline increased the ocular

toxic reaction to thimerosal. We have done some experiments to determine if

certain antibiotics could also increase thimerosal-induced neuronal death

in the neuron culture system. Our preliminary results indicate that this is

the case, especially with tetracycline and ampicillin. Further research is

needed in this area for accurate evaluation. But our results support

previous reports and indicate how important it is to check out the effects

of other compounds on the exacerbation of mercury and organic-mercury

compound toxicity.

One of the conundrums of autism is why there is an approximate ratio of

four boys to every girl who gets this disease. Dr. Lovell therefore tested

the possibility that this could be hormone related. The latest results were

quite marked in their effects. Neurons that were pre-incubated with

estrogen demonstrated substantial protection against thimerosal-induced

neuron death. In contrast, the addition of testosterone caused a very large

increase in thimerosal-induced neuron death. A low nanomolar level of

thimerosal that gave less than 5 percent neuron death in three hours could

be increased to 100 percent cell death by the addition of one micromolar

level of testosterone. Testosterone alone at this level also showed less

than 5 percent cell death. The opposing effects of estrogen and

testosterone may explain the gender-based four-to-one ratio. Most

important, the tremendous enhancement of thimerosal toxicity by

testosterone points out the impact of synergistic effects when addressing

mercury toxicity.

Those involved in promoting the use of mercury in medicine and dentistry

favor the old adage " Dose makes the toxin, " and pick a supposedly safe

level based on testing young, healthy mammals that have been exposed to

mercury compounds. The synergistic enhancement of thimerosal toxicity by

testosterone and aluminum demonstrates that no one can pick a concentration

of mercury or organic-mercury and say with confidence, " This is a safe dose

for human infants " --at least not with our current level of knowledge.

MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) has been widely discussed as a vaccine involved

in autism-related problems. Our studies did not find MMR vaccines (no

thimerosal added) to be nearly as neurotoxic as thimerosal-containing

vaccines. So how does this fit into the observations of measles virus in

the intestines of a large percentage of autistic children?

My theory, and it is only a theory at this time, is based on the fact that

thimerosal is an inhibitor of the brain protein tubulin. One of the jobs of

tubulin is to support the axon structure of nerve axons; exposure to

thimerosal, or mercury, destroys this capability. Tubulin also has another

job: it is involved in formation of the meiotic spindle on which a cell

splits in two. In other words, tubulin is needed for cell division, and

cell division is needed for development of an immune response. Inhibit

tubulin function with thimerosal injections, and you inhibit the immune

response.

I have been told that the MMR vaccination is often given at the same time

that three thimerosal-containing vaccines are given. Inhibit the immune

response with the thimerosal-containing vaccinations, and an infant has

less ability to respond to the measles virus in the MMR vaccination that is

injected at the same setting. This might explain the presence of measles

virus in about 80 percent of autistic children.

The research results we have obtained on the toxicity of thimerosal are not

really surprising. This ethyl mercury-releasing compound was known to be

neurotoxic through the publication of several research articles, some quite

old. Any competent biochemist would look at the structure of the compound

and identify it as a potent enzyme inhibitor. What is surprising is that

the appropriate animal and laboratory testing was not done on the vaccines

containing thimerosal (and aluminum) before the government embarked on a

mandated vaccine program that exposed infants to the levels of thimerosal

that occurred.

At this time it appears that exposure to thimerosal is the most likely

suspect in vaccines that may be involved in causing autism and related

disorders. The final verdict will come with observing the rate of autism

now that thimerosal has been removed from the infant vaccine program. Let

us therefore give credit to those who have worked to remove thimerosal from

the vaccines given to infants and emphasize that continued testing of all

vaccines is imperative to obtain the safest national vaccine policy

possible, including a thimerosal-free flu vaccine for our elderly citizens.

NOTES

1. S. Khatoon et al., " Aberrant GTP-Tubulin Interaction in Alzheimer's

Disease, " ls of Neurology 26 (1989): 210-215.

2. S. et al., " Abnormal Properties of Creatine Kinase in Alzheimer's

Disease Brain, " Molecular Brain Research 54 (1998): 276-287.

3. E. F. Duhr et al., " HgEDTA Complex Inhibits GTP Interactions with the

E-Site of Brain-Tubulin, " Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 122 (1993):

273-288.

4. J. C. Pendergrass and B. E. Haley, " Mercury-EDTA Complex Specifically

Blocks Brain-Tubulin-GTP Interactions: Similarity to Observations in

Alzheimer's Disease, " in Status Quo and Perspective of Amalgam and Other

Dental Materials, International Symposium Proceedings, L. T. Friberg and G.

N. Schrauzer, eds., 98-105 (Stuttgart and New York: Georg Thieme Verlag,

1995).

5. J. C. Pendergrass et al., " Mercury Vapor Inhalation Inhibits Binding of

GTP to Tubulin in Rat Brain: Similarity to a Molecular Lesion in

Alzheimer's Disease Brain, " Neurotoxicology 18, no. 2 (1997): 315-324.

6. G. Olivieri et al., " Mercury Induces Cell Cytotoxicity and Oxidative

Stress, " J. Neurochemistry 74 (2000): 231-241.

7. C. C. W. Leong et al., " Retrograde Degeneration of Neurite Membrane

Structural Integrity and Formation of Neurofibillary Tangles at Nerve

Growth Cones Following in Vitro Exposure to Mercury, " NeuroReports 12, no.

4 (2001): 733-737.

Boyd E. Haley, PhD, is a professor and chair of the department of chemistry

at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. His research on biochemical

aberrancies in Alzheimer's disease led to his identifying mercury toxicity

as a major exacerbating factor, perhaps even a causal factor. Haley has

testified before numerous government agencies on the effects of mercury

toxicity from dental amalgams and vaccines.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm Email classes start in

January