<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">From a trusted colleague of mine...<br><div><br><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="4" color="#000000" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="4" style="font: 14.0px Helvetica"><b>flu vaccine and nerve cells (1)</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div bgcolor="#ffffff"><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">Here is a timely review of a recently published article about a connection between Guillain-Barre syndrome, and the HA (hemagglutinin) protein from not only the 1976 swine flu vaccine, but also seasonal vaccines from more recent years. Apparently, the HA influenza A protein produces antibodies that mimic other molecular antibodies against gangliosides, an important type of molecule very common in the outer membrane of nerve cells.</font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"></font> </div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">One has to wonder if this is related to the alarming increase of neurological conditions in humans.</font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"></font> </div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">And there is more to this story, which I will post in another email.</font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"></font> </div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">Char</font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">_____________</font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"></font><br></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"><a href="http://www.newfluwiki2.com/diary/3126/swine-flu-1976-old-vaccines-new-lessons">http://www.newfluwiki2.com/diary/3126/swine-flu-1976-old-vaccines-new-lessons</a></font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"></font> </div><div><table width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><p><a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/589624?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dncbi.nlm.nih.gov"><b>Anti-Ganglioside Antibody Induction by Swine (A/NJ/1976/H1N1) and Other Influenza Vaccines: Insights into Vaccine-Associated Guillain-Barré Syndrome</b></a></p><p>The US army suffered heavy losses during the 1918 pandemic - more men died from flu than from fighting in the War. When an outbreak of swine flu occurred in 1976 among army recruits in a camp, the US government ordered millions of doses of vaccines against the virus, in anticipation of another pandemic. But a pandemic didn't happen. Instead, the massive vaccination campaign resulted in reports of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain-Barr%C3%A9_syndrome">Guillaine-Barre syndrome</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(or GBS) in some vaccine recipients, eventually causing the vaccination program to be halted. </p><p>Now, decades later, researchers sought to discover how this happened.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>A paper published last year (<a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/589624?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dncbi.nlm.nih.gov">link</a>) gives some unexpected and disturbing findings. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br></b></p></td></tr><tr><td class="theFlip"><a href="http://www.newfluwiki2.com/userDiary.do?personId=5">SusanC</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>::<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.newfluwiki2.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3126">Swine Flu 1976 - Old Vaccines, New Lessons?</a></td></tr><tr><td>First of all, Guillain-Barre Syndrome is an autoimmune neurological disease characterized by acute onset of muscle weakness or paralysis. Patients develop antibodies to certain molecules (anti-ganglioside antibodies) present in large quantities in nerve tissue, possibly as a result of molecular mimicry ie structural similarity between bacterial or viral antigens and the body's own molecules. <p>From the paper:</p><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><blockquote>"Patients with GBS develop anti-ganglioside antibodies that are implicated in the pathogenesis of this disease. Antibodies to a number of different complex gangliosides, includingGM1,GD1a, GD3, GT1a, and GQ1b, can be detected in patients with GBS [10]. Infections with several agents are associated with the development of GBS [11], and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Campylobacter jejuni, a common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis, is one of the most frequently identified bacterial pathogens associated with the development of GBS</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[12]. It has been deduced that the development of GBS after C. jejuni infection is the result of molecular mimicry between the bacterial surface lipooligosaccharide (LOS) expressing ganglioside-like epitopes and relevant targets in peripheral nerves [10, 13]."</blockquote><p>Because influenza vaccines are grown in eggs, and because eggs are frequently contaminated with C. jejunei, the researchers set out to discover<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>whether vaccine contamination with C. jejunei might be the cause of the GBS outbreak.</b></p><p>Here's what they did. They obtained unopened vaccine samples from 11 vaccine lots containing the 1976 swine flu vaccine, from 3 different manufacturers. First they tested these vaccines for haemagglutinin inhibition (HAI) test, to prove they still had HA activity. Then they vaccinated mice with these vaccines, and tested their serum samples for antibodies to C. jejunei. They did NOT find any such antibodies. They also ran some PCR tests, again for C. jejunei, with the vaccine samples, and didn't find anything either.</p><p>So, that showed them,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>the 1976 vaccines were NOT contaminated with C. jejunei. </b>So far so good.</p><p>But what they did find was rather disconcerting. They found that even though no c. jejunei was present,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>the mice all developed anti-ganglioside antibodies, just like patients with GBS would.</b></p><p><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">[see chart at above fluwiki link]</font></p><p>After that, they tested 2 other influenza vaccines, from 1991-92, and 2004-05 flu seasons. They found<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>similar results</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- the mice did NOT develop antibodies against C. jejunei (showing there was no contamination) but<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>they DID develop anti-ganglioside antibodies.</b></p><p>To verify this in a different way, they did 2 other tests:</p><p>1) they tested the vaccine samples with anti-ganglioside anti-sera, which would be expected to react to the presence of gangliosides or molecules that mimic gangliosides. They found that the same vaccine lots reacted with these anti-sera, showing that the vaccines indeed contain some substance that acts as ganglioside mimics.</p><p>2) They tested commercial anti-ganglioside anti-sera, for HAI activity, and again found positive results, showing that there may indeed be some mimicry between ganglioside and HA molecults.</p><p>So, up to this point, they have shown that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>there was something in those vaccines that had ganglioside mimic characteristics, and that this may well be the HA molecule itself<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>(since commercial anti-ganglioside anti-sera had HAI activity!). So far, the tested vaccines were all subunit vaccines. </p><p>Finally, they tested a recombinant HA vaccine, ie a vaccine that ONLY contains the HA molecule and nothing else. <b>This time they used the H5 vaccines</b>, generated against the 1997 Hong Kong virus, and another against the Vietnam 2004 virus. Again they got the same results -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>the HA vaccine triggered the development of anti-ganglioside antibodies in vaccinated mice. <br></b><br><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">[see charts at above fluwiki link]</font> </p><p>So what does this study tell us? If the results are correct (it's always prudent to get other researchers to repeat the study),<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>it shows that the HA in influenza virus itself, irrespective of which virus, has some properties that can trigger anti-ganglioside antibodies.</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Although the mice did not develop symptoms of GBS (we know that mice are not good models for human disease) this is a worrying finding. Current vaccination strategies, whatever vaccine you use, focus on the HA as the main target antigen. The aim is to produce robust immune response against the HA. If, as this study suggests, HA is in fact a molecular mimic for molecules in our nervous system,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>it may not be a smart idea to stimulate strong antibody reactions against HA</b>, after all!</p><p>In the words of one FDA scientist, there may be a good reason why we are not MEANT to have strong immune responses against influenza viruses! Of course, this is speculative at this point, but it really is something worth watching IMO.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2">_______________________</font></div><div><font face="Calisto MT" size="2"></font> </div><div><strong>what the authors said</strong></div><div><strong></strong> </div><div>"Previous studies of the immunogenicity of influenza vaccines in animals or humans have not examined<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>anti-ganglioside antibody responses</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>should be considered in future vaccine studies</b>."</div></div></span></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div>Kris Knight of WellAware Life Enhancement Center</div><div>Phone: 1-608-ALL-LIFE</div><div><a href="mailto:welaware@merr.com">welaware@merr.com</a></div><div><br></div></div><br></div><br></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>