SICK MONKEYS: RESEARCH VACCINE LOAD, AUTISM SIGNS

[Guest guest]

05/16/2008

 

SICK MONKEYS: RESEARCH LINKS VACCINE LOAD, AUTISM SIGNS

 

 

BY DAN OLMSTED

The first research project to examine effects of the total vaccine

load received by children in the 1990s has found autism-like signs and

symptoms in infant monkeys vaccinated the same way. The study's

principal investigator, Laura Hewitson from the University of

Pittsburgh, reports developmental delays, behavior problems and brain

changes in macaque monkeys that mimic "certain neurological

abnormalities of autism."

The findings are being reported Friday and Saturday at a major international autism conference in London.Although

couched in scientific language, Hewitson's findings are explosive. They

suggest, for the first time, that our closest animal cousins develop

characteristics of autism when subjected to the same immunizations –

such as the MMR shot -- and vaccine formulations – such as the mercury

preservative thimerosal -- that American children received when autism

diagnoses exploded in the 1990s.

 

The first publicly reported results of this research project come in

both oral and poster presentations on Friday and Saturday at the

International Meeting For Autism Research in London. Poster

presentations must go through a form of peer review before they are

presented at the conference; the papers have not yet appeared in a

scientific journal.

In addition to Hewitson's oral presentation today, on Saturday in

one of two related poster presentations, the researchers also are

reporting in their abstract that "vaccinated animals exhibited

progressively severe chronic active inflammation [in gastrointestinal

tissue] whereas unexposed animals did not. We have found many

significant differences in the GI tissue gene expression profiles

between vaccinated and unvaccinated animals." Numerous scientific

studies, as well as many parents, report severe GI ailments in children

with regressive autism.

The results are sure to be controversial, in part because they lend

credence to studies first published in 1998 by British pediatric

gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, one of Hewitson's co-authors on

these findings. He described an unusual inflammatory bowel condition in

children who had regressed into autism after they received the

measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination. Wakefield is currently

fighting charges of medical misconduct in Britain over allegations of

conflict-of-interest and improper procedures related to that paper. He

denies the charges.

In the program for the conference, the 7th Annual International

Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), there are three separate

presentations listed that report results from the overall research

program. The first, an oral presentation entitled "Pediatric Vaccines

Influence Primate Behavior, and Amygdala Growth and Opioid Ligand

Binding" (the "amygdala abstract") was led by Dr. Hewitson and lists 12

co-authors, including five of her colleagues from the University of

Pittsburgh and Dr. Wakefield. Other authors are chemists, pathologists

and psychologists from the universities of Kentucky, California-Irvine,

and Washington.

Hewitson's introductory presentation will be followed by two poster

presentations on Saturday; one of the two, "Pediatric Vaccines

Influence Primate Behavior, and Brain Stem Volume and Opioid Ligand

Binding", was led by Wakefield and includes six additional co-authors.

It focuses on the developmental effect of vaccine exposures on brain

growth during infancy. The second, "Microarray Analysis of GI Tissue in

a Macaque Model of the Effects of Infant Vaccination," was led by

Steven Walker of Wake Forest University and performed gene array

analysis on the intestinal tissues of the vaccinated and unvaccinated

monkeys.

The studies address – albeit in animals, not children -- one of the

major criticisms by parents and scientists concerned about a possible

link between the greatly stepped-up immunization schedule in the 1990s,

including higher exposure to the mercury preservative, and autism.

While the Food and Drug Administration approves individual vaccines as

safe and effective, and an advisory committee to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention recommends the childhood immunization

schedule adopted by the states, the overall health outcomes from the

total vaccine load, versus no vaccinations at all, have never been

compared, the authors said.

A bill requiring the government to conduct a study of autism rates

in unvaccinated American children is pending in the U.S. House of

Representatives, co-sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Tom

Osborne (R.-Neb.). Just this week, former National Institutes of Health Bernadine Healy called for more research into a possible

vaccine link to autism and said the question had not been settled,

despite repeated assertions to that effect by the CDC, the Institute of

Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In the abstract for today's oral presentation, the authors noted

that macaques, the type of monkey used in the study, "are commonly used

in pre-clinical vaccine safety testing, but the combined childhood

vaccine regimen, rather than individual vaccines, has not been studied.

Childhood vaccines are a possible causal factor in autism, and abnormal

behaviors and anomalous amygdala growth are potentially inter-related

features of this condition."

The study found evidence of both behavioral and biological changes

after the 13 macaque monkey infants were administered proportional

doses, adjusted for age, of the vaccines recommended between 1994 and

1999. Three monkeys were not given any vaccines.

"Primate development, cognition and social behavior were assessed

for both vaccinated and unvaccinated infants using standardized tests

developed at the Washington National Primate Research Center." MRI and

PET scans looked for brain changes after administration of the MMR.

"Compared with unexposed animals, significant neurodevelopmental

deficits were evident for exposed animals in survival reflexes, tests

of color discrimination and reversal, and learning sets," the authors

reported. "Differences in behaviors were observed between exposed and

unexposed animals and within the exposed group before and after MMR

vaccination. Compared with unexposed animals, exposed animals showed

attenuation of amygdala growth and differences in the amygdala binding

of [11C]diprenorphine. Interaction models identified significant

associations between specific aberrant social and non-social behaviors,

isotope binding, and vaccine exposure."

One of the Saturday abstracts makes the further point that the

research "revealed significant differences between exposed and

unexposed animals" in the kinds of developmental behaviors a mother

might be able to observe, "with delayed acquisition of root, suck,

clasp hand, and clasp foot reflexes." They conclude by noting that

"This animal model examines the neurological consequences of the

childhood vaccine regimen, Functional and … brainstem anomalies were

evident in vaccinated animals that may be relevant to some aspects of

autism. The findings raise important safety issues while providing a

potential animal model for examining aspects of causation and disease

pathogenesis in acquired neurodevelopmental disorders."--Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/05/sick-monkeys-st.html#comments