Ozone affects pollen allergens: at ozone levels typical of photochemical smog, more allergens are formed in pollen. This connection has been demonstrated in the rye plant and is now being published in the prestigious Journal of Allergy Clinical Immunology. The project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF shows that elevated ozone levels during maturation increase the protein and allergen contents of rye pollen. This points to a relationship between current environmental problems due to climate change and the rise in allergies.

It’s on everyone’s lips, especially during the summer months when photochemical smog engulfs the world’s cities. Environmental pollution and climate change both contribute to the increasingly frequent incidences observed. While this is a major health problem in itself, there are now indications that elevated ozone levels also raise the allergen content of pollen. A team from the Medical University of Vienna and the Austrian Institute of Technology have investigated the reasons for this phenomenon.

Ozone Stimulates Rye

The team behind project leader Prof. Rudolf Valenta of the Centre for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna cultivated two different rye cultivars under controlled environmental conditions. One group of plants was exposed to elevated ozone concentrations (79 parts per billion) for part of the time. This value is more than three times the normal ozone concentration at ground level, i.e. 22 ppb, and corresponds to the health-endangering peak values that occur on hot days in Vienna. A control group was grown at normal ozone levels for subsequent comparison with the high-ozone group.

When the pollen was mature, it was harvested and collected for further study. It yielded very convincing results, as Prof. Valenta explains: “First, we were able to show that the higher ozone concentrations led to a marked elevation of the protein content in both cultivars. Further analysis showed that allergens of groups 1, 5 and 6 contribute to this increase, as does another allergen, profilin. Even in the second rye cultivar, increased ozone exposure during pollen maturation led to a sharp rise in group 1 allergens and profilin.”

Allergen = Allergy?

This result alone would seem to show that higher ozone levels can increase the allergic potential of certain grasses. However, “more allergens” does not necessarily translate to “more allergies”. It was clear to Prof. Valenta and his team that potential allergens are not always recognized by the immune system and therefore do not always give rise to allergies. “A study from 2007 shows that ozone can actually decrease the allergenicity of rye allergens,” comments Prof. Valenta. “So there may be more allergens, as our work shows, but whether these would react with human IgE antibodies and cause actual allergies was not clear.”

However, another experiment soon provided a clear answer to this question: protein extracts from both rye cultivars were incubated with IgE antibodies from allergic patients. The results showed that the protein extracts from ozone-stressed plants reacted more strongly with the IgE antibodies, which are involved in allergic reactions, than those of the control plants, meaning that the former are more allergenic.

Consequently, the team around Prof. Valenta, Dr. Thomas Reichenauer and Prof. Verena Niederberger, managed to demonstrate in this FWF-funded project in a well controlled set of experiments that environmental problems such as rising ozone concentrations at ground level may bear some of the responsibility for the constant increase in allergic disorders in our society in recent years.

References:

VWF, Allergies through Ozone Effects? Ozone Increases Allergen Load, Vienna, 23.08.2010

Original publication: Exposure of rye (Secale cereale) cultivars to elevated ozone levels increases the allergen content in pollen, J. Eckl-Dorna, B. Klein, T.G. Reichenauer, V. Niederberger, R. Valenta, J Allergy Clin Immunol. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2010.06.012

Photo: Monika Grote

The broadest possible integration of disabled people is the goal of all countries which are signatories to the UN Disabilities Convention. The countries which have signed this convention and ratified it, may be viewed here:

Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities

This internationally binding document has validity for those countries who have signed and ratified it. Direct efforts should have been pursued by the signatories so that all disabled children receive an education. No disability must be preferred over an other. MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a physically caused disability which needs recognition in the educational realm.

In the U.S. and Canada, there is a steady growing number of schools and local univer- sities that are integrating policies for chemically injured students and adapting conditions to include this disability. The transition has been mainly on a volunteer basis initially, with perfume bans and an effort to use chemically free cleaning products.

Students with MCS

There are severe cases of children and young teens with chemical compromises which seem to have little hope of a successful future due to their disability. The chemical triggers are so overwhelming on their various physical systems that they are unable to attend a traditional school setting without well thought out appropriate accommodations.

A big problem for these students in traditional school settings is falling behind academically. Due to their reaction difficulties at school, they miss a lot of instructional time. Parents report their children missing hours, days, and sometimes months of school , and trying to catch up at home with all the required instructional materials from the teacher(s) is extremely difficult.

Then there is often trouble with the school or school authorities. Whether the modifications for these disabled students will be feasible to get the education requirements needed depends on the consideration of the school, the classmates, building maintenance, chemical substances used at the school site, in and outside the individual classroom.

Questions to be answered in individual countries:

• How does my country integrate children and young people who have chemical sensitivity?
• What are the guidelines for dealing with chemically sensitive students in a traditional school setting or what accommodations can the school offer?
• Are schools in my country responsive to students with MCS?
• Do authorities in my country have policies in place which enable chemically sensitive students to achieve a quality education?
• Does my country cover free internet schooling education for students suffering with chemical sensitivities?
• What policies would schools have to change in order to successfully integrate students with MCS?

In January 2006, at the initiative of the Ministry of the Environment, a Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities was founded in Denmark. The Center was designed to offer treatments to those with MCS and research fragrance sensitivities in more detail. The initial hope that originally flowed through this center, funded by the Ministry, was to benefit MCS sufferers and to delve into medical science for those affected. Unfortunately this hope has been shattered by recent publications.

The EMM Blog will publish several articles reporting the consequences for MCS sufferers. Environmental health professionals and organizations must be well informed about the events in other countries and it appears that the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities is striving to clearly influence the international science of MCS.

The second article of a series entitled, “The Danish MCS Research Centre in the International Field of Vision,” was written by a nurse who is suffering from MCS.

If you missend the first article of the series, read here >>

Mette Toft: MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A Report from Denmark

What are the interests within the individual research groups regarding MCS?

Bodil Dam Bak Nielsen – In April 2010, an independent group of Italian scientists (De Luca et al.) published their research results, “Biological definition of multiple chemical sensitivity from redox state and cytokine profiling and not from polymorphisms of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes“.(1) The study results have shown that in MCS sufferers, the activity of erythrocyte catalase and GST were lower, whereas Gpx was higher than normal. Both reduced and oxidized glutathione were lower during nitric oxide (NO) / peroxynitrite (ONOO) raised in the MCS group. The fatty acid profile of MCS patients were shifted to the saturated part, and the IFN-gamma, IL-8, IL-10, MCP-1, PDGFbb and VEGF were elevated.

Danish MCS Science Center questions the work of colleagues

In July 2010, the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities and Fragrance Sensitivity reported on their website, (which in the opinion of many Danish MCS sufferers is very questionable research, with the main emphasis on mental health):

“Since this is only a single study (De Luca et al.), it is necessary to review the results and pursue new studies before a conclusion can be drawn regarding the importance of immunological factors in fragrance and Chemical Sensitivities”.

“This is why the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities plans to examine whether heightened cytokines or inflammatory factors can be detected in those with chemical hypersensitivity – REGARDLESS OF CONTACT ALLERGIES”.

Selective control?

The results of the Italians have not only showed increasing of the messenger interferon (IFN)-gamma, but also point to several metabolic parameters for accelerated lipid oxidation, as well as increased nitric oxide production and reduction of glutathione in combination with elevated inflammatory cytokines, which confirms a biological definition and diagnosis of MCS.

Contact allergy, a diagnosis of exclusion in MCS?

The former head of the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities, Jesper Elberling , who is the senior researcher and expert, knows that the messenger interferon (IFN)-gamma plays a role in the development of contact dermatitis because of his work in the dermatology department at Gentofte Hospital. This is the cytokine messenger that the Italians have found in their research in MCS patients. The  Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities realizes from its own questionnaire that many MCS sufferers also suffer from contact allergies.

Because of this it is important to ask the following questions:

• Is the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities, therefore, consciously and deliberately selecting only THIS small part of the research result of the Italians to verify? Shouldn’t ALL research findings be verified before a conclusion can be drawn as to their validity?
• Shouldn’t one of the aims of this planned research study be to look at those MCS sufferers with a contact allergy and not exclude MCS patients with contact allergy to see if the result changes?
• Is the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities able to demonstrate that this result (the De Luca A et al. research) can be attributed, according to a large part of the MCS sufferers who participated in the study, must have suffered from contact dermatitis, and that this research can therefore be attributed to this fact?

Will their study results attempt to discredit the Italian research?

Only then the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities could thus bring the present research results into disrepute, which would neglect the complete research result of the Italians and cast their research in a bad light.

Why not complete control?

This raises the question of why the Science Center has not decided to check the other research results of the Italian scientists who need to be reviewed well before the Center may consider their findings valid.

Martin Pall’s theory (the fatal NO / ONOO cycle), states that among other things, MCS sufferers experience an increased nitric oxide production, which has indeed been demonstrated by the researchers from Italy. The Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities cannot refute this research result.

The Italian scientists have shown that, in accordance with Martin Pall’s theory, the vicious biochemical NO / ONOO cycle,three factors decreased compared to the healthy control group. It is odd that the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities does not have evidence or the desire to disprove this.

It appears that the Italian doctors did not choose to include contact allergies in their research findings. Naturally, most biochemical substances in the body are influenced by many factors or diseases; therefore, the wish to correlate precisely this factor (interferon (IFN)-gamma) with something that is known to influence it as well (i.e. contact allergies) can be seen as an attempt to create uncertainty around the Italian research results. In this way the entire Italian study, and its results that are so important to MCS sufferers, will be questioned. Is this the intended aim of the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities?

We certainly hope not, and hope that independent scientists will begin to verify the accuracy of all the other results, and not only select a single result, in the hopes of being able to refute the validity of the research.

Author: Bodil Dam Bak Nielsen for CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network, August 2010

Translation: Thank you very much to Christi Howarth!

References:

1. Chiara De Lucaa, Maria G. Scordob, Eleonora Cesareoa, Saveria Pastorea, Serena Mariania, Gianluca Maiania, Andrea Stancatoa, Beatrice Loretic, Giuseppe Valacchid, e, Carla Lubranoc, Desanka Raskovicf, Luigia De Padovac, Giuseppe Genovesic and Liudmila G. Korkinaa, Biological definition of multiple chemical sensitivity from redox state and cytokine profiling and not from polymorphisms of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes, doi:10.1016/j.taap. 2010.04.017, Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2010 Apr 27
2. Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities, Italiensk studie sætter fokus på signalstoffer, 18.07,2010

Series: The Danish MCS Research Centre in the International Field of Vision

Part I: MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A Report from Denmark

Related articles:

• Predictions of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Mechanism Confirmed by Roman Study
• MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity – A Disease Caused by Toxic Chemical Exposure
• Research on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)
• Unanimous Vote for Research Center for MCS, CFS, FMS, GWS in New Jersey
• Reckless Self-Interest Of The Fragrance Industry

A new study from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research shows an association between ADHD and a ‘Western-style’ diet in adolescents.

The research findings have just been published online in the international Journal of Attention Disorders.

Leader of Nutrition studies at the Institute, Associate Professor Wendy Oddy, said the study examined the dietary patterns of 1800 adolescents from the long-term Raine Study and classified diets into ‘Healthy’ or ‘Western’ patterns.

“We found a diet high in the Western pattern of foods was associated with more than double the risk of having an ADHD diagnosis compared with a diet low in the Western pattern, after adjusting for numerous other social and family influences,” Dr Oddy said.

“We looked at the dietary patterns amongst the adolescents and compared the diet information against whether or not the adolescent had received a diagnosis of ADHD by the age of 14 years. In our study, 115 adolescents had been diagnosed with ADHD, 91 boys and 24 girls.”

A “healthy” pattern is a diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and fish. It tends to be higher in omega-3 fatty acids, folate and fibre. A “Western” pattern is a diet with a trend towards takeaway foods, confectionary, processed, fried and refined foods. These diets tend to be higher in total fat, saturated fat, refined sugar and sodium.

“When we looked at specific foods, having an ADHD diagnosis was associated with a diet high in takeaway foods, processed meats, red meat, high fat dairy products and confectionary,” Dr Oddy said.

“We suggest that a Western dietary pattern may indicate the adolescent has a less optimal fatty acid profile, whereas a diet higher in omega-3 fatty acids is thought to hold benefits for mental health and optimal brain function.

“It also may be that the Western dietary pattern doesn’t provide enough essential micronutrients that are needed for brain function, particularly attention and concentration, or that a Western diet might contain more colours, flavours and additives that have been linked to an increase in ADHD symptoms. It may also be that impulsivity, which is a characteristic of ADHD, leads to poor dietary choices such as quick snacks when hungry.”

Dr Oddy said that whilst this study suggests that diet may be implicated in ADHD, more research is needed to determine the nature of the relationship.

“This is a cross-sectional study so we cannot be sure whether a poor diet leads to ADHD or whether ADHD leads to poor dietary choices and cravings,” Dr Oddy said.

ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed childhood mental health disorder and has a prevalence of approximately 5%. ADHD is known to be more common in boys.

Reference:

Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Western diet link to ADHD, 29 July, 2010.

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• Our Planet, our Children – How are your children doing?

Toxic  trio identified as the basis of celiac disease

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have identified the three protein fragments that make gluten – the main protein in wheat, rye and barley – toxic to people with celiac disease.

Their discovery opens the way for a new generation of diagnostics, treatments, prevention strategies and food tests for the millions of people worldwide with celiac disease.

When people with celiac disease eat products containing gluten their body’s immune response is switched on and the lining of the small intestine is damaged, hampering their ability to absorb nutrients. The disease is currently treated by permanently removing gluten from the patient’s diet.

Dr Bob Anderson, head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s celiac disease research laboratory, said it had been 60 years since gluten was discovered to be the environmental cause of celiac disease.

“In the years since, the holy grain in celiac disease research has been to identify the toxic peptide components of gluten; and that’s what we’ve done,” Dr Anderson said.

The research, done in collaboration with Dr Jason Tye-Din, Dr James Dromey, Dr Stuart Mannering, Dr Jessica Stewart and Dr Tim Beissbarth from the institute as well as Professor Jamie Rossjohn at Monash University and Professor Jim McCluskey at the University of Melbourne, is published in today’s issue of the international journal Science Translational Medicine.

The study was started by Professor Anderson nine years ago and has involved researchers in Australia and the UK as well as more than 200 celiac disease patients.

The patients, recruited through the Celiac Society of Victoria and the Celiac Clinic at John Radcliffe Hospital, UK, ate bread, rye muffins or boiled barley. Six days later, blood samples were taken to measure the strength of the patients’ immune responses to 2700 different gluten fragments. The responses identified 90 fragments as causing some level of immune reaction, but three gluten fragments (peptides) were revealed as being particularly toxic.

“These three components account for the majority of the immune response to gluten that is observed in people with celiac disease,” Dr Anderson said.

This knowledge has already been used by Melbourne-based biotech company, Nexpep Pty Ltd, to develop a ‘peptide-based’ immunotherapy that aims to desensitize people with celiac disease to the toxic effects of gluten. Nexpep’s Phase 1 trials of the therapy were completed in June and final results are expected in coming months.

The immunotherapy works by exposing people with celiac disease to small amounts of the three toxic peptides and is based upon the same principles as desensitization for allergies.

Dr Anderson said although celiac disease could be managed with a gluten-free diet, compliance with the diet is often challenging and nearly half the people on the diet still have residual damage to their small intestine. “Consequently, the immunotherapy and three other drugs are under development to help people with celiac disease.”

Reference: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Toxic trio identified as the basis of celiac disease, July 21, 2010

Photo: Czesia Markiewicz, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

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The research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Coeliac UK, the Coeliac Research Fund, Nexpep Pty Ltd, BTG International and the Victorian Government.

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Related article:

• Gluten intolerance in Finland has doubled
• Gluten-free diet reduces bone problems in children with celiac disease
• New blood test for newborns to detect allergy risk