https://cfsuntied.net/2014/12/04/an...eOOZqwphK_sbu-2nVEg15rnvLBXXBKjt7MDbwQ-WlJdH4
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!
DECEMBER 4, 2014 KHALY CASTLE
– Monty Python
(This is a repost of an article written by Khaly Castle with Erik Johnson, and originally published on 9/15/2011 at CFSUntied.com Blog)
Steering Immunostimulation By Particle’s Size: Nanoparticles and Human Health
What on earth does that mean?
Let’s talk about a paper that was prepublished in “
Blood – Journal of the American Society of Hematology” in March 2010, entitled “
Particle size and activation threshold: a new dimension of danger signalling”, Rettig et al. (For more detail, please click on the link to read the entire paper.)
This research article starts by describing the innate immune system in basics. The innate immune system works by detecting danger signals, or molecules that originate from invaders and disturbed or abnormal cells.
It goes on to document the three forms of nucleic acid that are recognized by the immune system, and how they are recognized by Toll Like Receptors. When those receptors are activated, the immune response is initiated. Cytokines and co-stimulation molecules are produced, and certain homing and chemokine receptors are upregulated.
Then, the paper shows that there is a difference in how the innate immune system responds when the “invader” is reduced from micro- to nano-particulates.
This is a major concept to get one’s head around.
The “Particle size” paper documents that nanoparticles, but not microparticles, induce interferon-alpha production in human cells. Research suggests that the plasmacytoid predendritic cells (pDC), which are critical mediators linking the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system, selectively take up nanoparticles, while monocytes require a larger amount of “danger signal” to be fully activated.
Both pathways stimulate the immune system the same way..but the difference seems to be that nanoparticles induce an interferon-alpha response, while microparticles induce production of TNF-alpha.
A little bit about nanoparticles:
In nanotechnology, a number of physical phenomena occur when the size of a system is reduced to nanoscale. Quantum effects become dominant when the nanometer size range is reached. This is known as the “quantum realm”. There can be an increase in surface area to volume ratio, and acceleration of ion transport. The properties of materials change as nanosize is reached and the percentage of atoms at the surface of a material becomes significant.
Although nanotechnology is a subject of bitter debate amongst scientists regarding the safety of usage, there are a multitude of studies which indicate that there are dangers to both the environment and to human health. Most of these dangers are due to the high surface-to-volume ratio, which can make the particles very reactive.
Nanostructured Materials, by Jackie Yi-Ru Ying.
For instance, a recent study looked at the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles on human immune cells, and found that the smaller the nanoparticle, the more increased the cytotoxicity. Mechanisms of toxicity involve the generation of reactive oxygen species, with monocytes displaying the highest levels, and the degree of cytotoxicity dependent on the extent of nanoparticle interactions with cellular membranes.
Hanley et al, The Influences of Cell Type and ZnO Nanoparticle Size on Immune Cell Cytotoxicity and Cytokine Induction.
Some interesting factoids about mold and nanoparticles…
Aspergillus fumigatus is a common mold that is typically found in soil and decaying matter. It readily becomes airborne. It is one of the most common Aspergillus species to cause illness in individuals with compromised immune systems. For these people, Aspergillus fumigatus can become pathogenic, causing a range of symptoms and diseases. It also produces cytotoxic mycotoxins.
In nanotechnology, it has been discovered that by using the natural processes of biological systems, Aspergillus fumigatus can be used as a nanoparticle factory.
The synthesis process was quite fast and silver nanoparticles were formed within minutes of silver ion coming in contact with the cell filtrate, claims the Bhainsha study from 2006,
Extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus
….and sewer sludge
When legislation went into place to curtail the practice of dumping sewage waste into the ocean, a new practice emerged. Sewer sludge got renamed fertilizer, and got dumped on farmer’s fields under the guise of recycling.
According to the EPA, sewer sludge consists of “volatiles, organic solids, nutrients, disease-causing pathogenic organisms, heavy metals and inorganic ions, and toxic organic chemicals from industrial wastes, household chemicals, and pesticides.” In other words, you name it, it’s in there, including nanoparticles. And, Aspergillus fumigatus is a common byproduct of sewer sludge.
For more reading on this, try starting with
The Real Dirt On Sewer Sludge, by Wendy Priesnitz
What does this have to do with CFS? Maybe nothing. More likely, maybe everything.
When I say CFS, I mean the entity that got named CFS…the Incline outbreak.
Here is an excerpt from a recent communication between Erik Johnson, Incline Village survivor, and the W.H.O.:
During the 1985 Incline Village “mystery illness” it seemed that common household molds were suddenly having a devastating effect on all of us.
Everyone knew it, everyone noticed this, but it was ENTIRELY attributed to changes in the immune function of patients due to infection, and NEVER on the possibility that something in the ambient atmosphere might have potentiated the toxicity of fungal-products from common molds.
I have been telling everyone for 25 years that I have had BETTER results by treating mold “as if it were Plutonium” than anything I have seen from the most aggressive chemotherapy aimed at viral or bacterial infections.
This is how I came to be known as “The Mold Warrior”.
”Mold Warriors” by Dr Ritchie Shoemaker. Chapt. 23 “Mold at Ground Zero for CFS”.
http://www.moldwarriors.com/
In my military career as a launcher specialist for “The Neutron Bomb”, I was trained to look for what DOESN’T happen after a neutron strike: A LOSS of immune function which leaves one susceptible to nearly anything, as opposed to consequences arising as a normal consequence from normal infection.
That is exactly the type of effect that I witnessed during the 1985 Tahoe Mystery Malady: An inexplicable loss of immune function that appeared to correlate to environmental locations.
I have read that fungi serve as “bionanofactory” for biosynthesis of nanoparticles.
It seems to me that mold does not normally have access to fine metallic particulate matter which can be processed into “ultrafine” nanoparticles, as “modern pollution” did not exist.
These metallic nanoparticles are known to affect the microglial cells and induce CP450-decoupling” with the subsequent production of Reactive Oxygen Species, which is entirely consistent with CFS.
The activities of humans have dramatically changed the potential for contact between fungi and ubiquitous airborne metallo-particulates.
If mold is capable of what the article below [refers to this article .
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=465.php] says mold is doing… and is converting ambient atmospheric fine metal particles into even smaller nanoparticles… the global environment is in deeper trouble than anyone suspects.
The inception of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome just might have been the cautionary warning for nanoparticulates that nobody heeded.
– Erik Johnson
In the Saratoga Springs manual, the hints of a sudden surge in fungal pathogenesis is mentioned in several places where the effects matched nothing in THEIR mycotoxin literature. Dr William Croft, who published the first peer reviewed abstracts on trichothecene toxicity in the United States, said the effects were “radiomimetic”.
IAQ experts Pierre Auger and Harriet Burge agree that T2 (trichothecene) mycotoxins fall short of achieving this level of illness.
My own experiments with mold samples suggests that there are special times when this effect blazes forth with an intensity and magnitude that causes a “hit and run” effect upon the neuro-immune system which baffles physicians trying to identify a toxic substance.
To the best of my ability to discern, these times correspond to the ion-shift of the atmosphere.
Several years ago, I saw an abstract which described the capability of certain molds and bacteria to act as biosynthesizers of nanoparticles.
My speculation is that the mutation discovered by Dr Shoemaker has resulted in the conjugation of this resistance-property by various powerful “toxin forming” molds, which are now capable of withstanding the antimicrobial effects of human-introduced ubiquitous metal particulates, and processing them into extremely hazardous “nano-plumes”.
This resistance trait emerged in the late 1970’s, just prior to the incredible surge in unexplained-illness such as Gulf War, Fibromyalgia, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, as well as massive increases in autism, Parkinsons, MS, and ALS.
The CFS epidemic strangely centered upon north Lake Tahoe, and oddly spared an almost identical demographic at south Lake Tahoe, only twenty miles away.
I believe that the emergence of “CFS” in such an otherwise pristine area represents the “canary” of a much larger ambient environmental alteration.
The reasons for which might be a special condition of application of ultrafine silver particles to this specific region.
During the 1980’s, the local ski resorts embarked upon an illegal and untested campaign of intense cloud seeding with silver iodide. Many environmentalists were concerned that in addition to the approved mountaintop dispersers that were strategically placed upwind, that private aircraft were covertly targeting every storm from and potential precipitation heading toward the resorts.
My speculation is that this intense seeding is responsible for gradually increased resistance in the microbial terrain of north Lake Tahoe, which combined with the newly potentiated indoor toxic molds, resulted in “spot colonies” of extremely hazardous molds which emitted nano-plumes and manifested in unprecedented immune suppression that ALLOWED people in these environments to acquire the opportunistic infections which might otherwise have been warded off, resulting in “clusters” of unexplained illness and the inception of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
-Erik Johnson
Further Food for Thought
From the Fresno Bee: Shower of toxic particles threatens Valley air by Mark Grossi, July 14, 2010
(Last I checked, the link was broken, but it was
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/14/2006814/toxic-shower-threatens-valley.html. There is reference to the entire article with a partial reprint here:
http://lymebook.com/fight/shower-of-toxic-particles-could-corrode-lungs/)
A mysterious shower of microscopic chemicals near a Fresno shopping center could be the first evidence of a broad, undetected assault on the lungs of San Joaquin Valley residents.
If confirmed in other Valley cities, it means many thousands of people are daily breathing these cocktails of chemicals — known as ultra-fine particles — that corrode and damage lungs.
The plume in Fresno probably spreads over many square miles, not just the Fashion Fair area where they were discovered, said UC Davis atmospheric scientist Anthony Wexler, who detected the pollution.
Sensitive, expensive equipment is needed to detect and study ultrafine pollution. Science is only now defining the possible problem.
Wexler revealed Fresno’s midday rise in microscopic pollution last month at an air-quality conference, saying he and others will continue studying them to determine the source and extent of the plume.
Researchers also must figure out what’s in the particles and more clearly define the possible health threat. It may be years before local, state and federal officials can develop a cleanup strategy.
The particles are so small that 1,000 of them would fit across the width of a human hair. For years, science has known that such particles exist, but they are thousands of times smaller than previously studied particles in dust, soot and diesel smoke.
Health problems from such pollution were detailed last month in a study on allergic asthmatics, whose lungs are inflamed to the point that only a small amount of pollen, animal hair or other allergens can trigger a crippling attack.
The findings from Dr. Andre Nel, a UCLA medical researcher, were published by the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.
“If there is a surge in ultra-fine pollution particles, it makes twitchy airways even more twitchy,” he said. “It results in a much lower threshold of allergens to create an asthmatic response or an attack.”
These specks can come from volcanoes or ocean spray, but they also come from printer toner, vehicle exhaust and chemical reactions in the air. Fresno’s particles may come from traffic and other pollution vapors.
The site near Fashion Fair is not far from Highway 41, Shaw Avenue and many businesses and restaurants, so there could be many different contributors to the pollution.
Wexler said he suspects the particles form after pollution gases accumulate in the air each day, though there could be a particular source spewing the particles.
But he said it’s a good bet that the problem is not just isolated in the Fashion Fair area. Thousands of Fresno residents may be exposed to the particles.
Is this midday rise in pollution occurring in other Valley cities? It’s possible, said Wexler. This kind of pollution also has been detected in other places, such as Pittsburgh, which has problems with particle pollution.
The Valley is known nationally for particle pollution. In the American Lung Association’s latest rankings, Bakersfield and Fresno-Madera were the country’s two worst places for short-term bouts of particle pollution.
The ranking applied to fine-particle pollution, which includes the smallest specks that Wexler discovered near Fashion Fair.
Researchers in Southern California say the tiny particles contain 1,000 or more different substances. The particles tend to grow larger, accumulating many toxic chemicals from the air.
In the UCLA study, Nel showed the chemical debris corrodes and injures the lungs, and the body responds with inflammation. He said it could possibly cause problems for even those with healthy lungs, but he has only studied asthmatics.
For asthmatics, Nel said conventional treatment does not address the problems created by pollution. He said science would have to alter medications, using the kind of antioxidant chemicals found in broccoli and other natural sources to combat the lung injuries.
Nel said such a treatment needs to be developed soon because there is evidence that ultra-fine pollution is becoming a problem in many places, and asthma is on the rise worldwide.
”The particles are increasing in the industrialized Northern Hemisphere,” he said. “They are being spread on the wind from city to city, country to country and even continent to continent.”
The reporter can be reached at
mgrossi@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6316.
Is mold capable of acting like a nanofactory, spitting nanoplumes into the air? And can these nanoplumes carry nanoparticles that are subsequently laced with biotoxins such as tricothecene toxins? Have nature and mankind collided to create a perfect delivery system for highly toxic particles to be shuttled across cell walls and through the blood/brain barrier? If so, that would certainly create an immune system open to the uptake and residence of name-your-pathogen.
It certainly seems to be a paradigm screaming for research.
And just for fun, try this:
Silent Spring
I did see the thread on the forum about the team at Stanford who believe they've figured out the mechanism behind RA and have treatments in mind that might reverse it. That would be nice.
