Adjuvant Review Synopsis:
• Adjuvants are compounds incorporated into vaccines to enhance
immunogenicity.
• Several of thesemolecules have been approved, including aluminium
salts, oil-in-water emulsions (MF59, AS03 and AF03), virosomes and
AS04.
• Adjuvants have recently been implicated in the new syndrome named
“ASIA—Autoimmune/inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants”.
• The pathogenesis of the ASIA syndrome is founded on the hypothesis
that an exposure to an adjuvant may trigger the development of an
autoimmune disease.
• Several different adjuvants exist and each one has specific characteristics
and a different mechanism of action that could affect both the
immune response and the risk of adverse events.
• All available adjuvants, despite their different mechanisms of action,
have been implicated to the ASIA syndrome.
• Our analysis highlights our current understanding of the mechanisms
of action of available adjuvants and the mechanisms by which these
components may determinate autoimmunity. Adjuvant Review study…
VLA Comment: What about the adjuvants in Monsanto’s Round Up, companion to GMO seeds?
Roundup more damaging than glyphosate
There is already evidence that glyphosate is an endocrine disrupting chemical (see later), but the extent of the problem is far greater than it appears. Different glyphosate formulations vary in toxicity, mainly because some of them contain adjuvants that are either toxic by themselves, or else exert synergistic effects with glyphosate. It has long been known that Monsanto’s formulation Roundup, the most widely used glyphosate herbicide, is far more damaging than glyphosate itself (reviewed in [5] Ban GMOs Now, ISIS special report)
…and colleagues at University of Caen in France clearly demonstrated that POEA (polyethoxylated tallowamine, a major adjuvant surfactant in Roundup) alone was by far the most cytotoxic for several human cell types, at concentrations a hundredth to ten-thousandth that of glyphosate itself and other formulations without POEA [6]. Another study from the same laboratory also showed that Roundup exposure damages testosterone producing Leydig cells from mature rat testis at concentrations a tenth of agricultural use and beginning 1 hour after exposure [7]. Within 24-48 h, the same formulation was toxic to other cells inducing cell death, in contrast to glyphosate alone, which is only toxic to Sertoli cells (feeder cells for germ cells). At 48 h, Roundup induces apoptosis (programmed cell death involving DNA fragmentation) in germ cells and in Sertoli/germ cells co-culture. At the very low, non-toxic concentration of 1 ppm, both Roundup and glyphosate decreased testosterone level by 35 %. These experiments expose a major inadequacy in the regulatory regime, which still regards POEA in Roundup as an inert adjuvant for which no risk assessment is required.http://www.i-sis.org.