1%: FINE FOR MILK, A BIT LOW FOR A BREAKTHROUGH

How's this strike you? "New birth control prevents 1% of pregnancies!"  "Cure for Cancer! New drug offers 1% survival rate." Are you impressed yet?

The media hoopla over the "breakthrough" news that a segment of Chromosome 16 has been officially implicated in 1 percent of autism cases has been received by 99% of parents (at least the savvy ones) as a big fat nothing.

"Thus far, only about 10 percent of autism cases have a known genetic cause. Boston-area researchers estimate the gene glitch they’ve identified accounts for another 1 percent of cases.

They found a segment of a chromosome which has genes linked to brain development and various developmental disorders was either missing or duplicated far more often in autistic people. The defect was inherited in some cases, but more often the result of a random genetic accident."

Note the last sentence, "...more often the result of a random accident." Boy, at 1 in 150 kids that sure seems like a lot of random defects. Forget who makes the bullets, focus on what (who) is pulling the trigger.

HERE's the hoopla from 2005 about Chromosome 17. How many kids have been diagnosed since then due to their "random defect?"

You can watch THIS from NBC if you still have the heart about the current news.

Comments

[Karen B]

This study wins the belly laugh award.

"The defect was inherited in some cases, but more often the result of a random genetic accident." (The actual study states to sperm or egg.)

What kind of accident? A drunk driver? Or a vaccine ingredient like Thimerosal known to cause reproductive damage.

Thimerosal is genotoxic.
Götz A. Westphal, Soha Asgari, Thomas G. Schulz, Jürgen Bünger, Michael Müller, Ernst Hallier

1Department of Occupational Health, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Waldweg 37, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Abstract

Thimerosal is a widely used preservative in health care products, especially in vaccines. Due to possible adverse health effects, investigations on its metabolism and toxicity are urgently needed. An in vivo study on chronic toxicity of thimerosal in rats was inconclusive and reports on genotoxic effects in various in vitro systems were contradictory. Therefore, we reinvestigated thimerosal in the cytochalasin B block micronucleus test. Glutathione S-transferases were proposed to be involved in the detoxification of thimerosal or its decomposition products. Since the outcome of genotoxicity studies can be dependent on the metabolic competence of the cells used, we were additionally interested whether polymorphisms of glutathione S-transferases (GSTM1, GSTT1, or GSTP1) may influence the results of the micronucleus test with primary human lymphocytes. Blood samples of six healthy donors of different glutathione S-transferase genotypes were included in the study. At least two independent experiments were performed for each blood donor. Significant induction of micronuclei was seen at concentrations between 0.05-0.5 µg/ml in 14 out of 16 experiments. Thus, genotoxic effects were seen even at concentrations which can occur at the injection site. Toxicity and toxicity-related elevation of micronuclei was seen at and above 0.6 µg/ml thimerosal. Marked individual and intraindividual variations in the in vitro response to thimerosal among the different blood donors occurred. However, there was no association observed with any of the glutathione S-transferase polymorphism investigated. In conclusion, thimerosal is genotoxic in the cytochalasin B block micronucleus test with human lymphocytes. These data raise some concern on the widespread use of thimerosal.

[PassionateQueen]

Dear PassionlessDrone, if true biomedical research on treatments were underway, financed with the millions held captive by Theywhomustnotbenamed, many of us in the hive would buzz right along with you. Sorry honey.

[passionlessDrone]

We shouldn't discount this finding; the important thing isn't that only 1% (or less) of autistics have it; but rather, if you do have it, your chances of being diagnosed are (about) 100 fold increased. Also, it has the potential to give us good information about what is actually happening; in other words, what is physiological basis of the predisposition?

If I am not mistaken, this gene cluster is involved with synaptic density; very likely it is one of a great many genes involved with this. We should be prepared that other genes along this functional line will show similar associations with deletions with an autism label.

This doesn't exhonerate the environment by any stretch, but there is good information to be learned from genetics. No genes operate in a vacuum, the more we understand about the functional impact of genetic deletions, the better we understand not only what is actually happening, but what environmental agents could be problematic for children with such deletions.

If the biomedical community wants to be taken seriously, we cannot discount findings like this.

Take care!

- pD

[Elementary my dear]

My dear dear Anne. Sometimes an astounding grip on math is not enough to appreciate the wonder and the splendour of human life. It is priceless and it is precious no matter what your denominator may look like. You do not mess with it, wilfully or unwilfully. There is nothing out there that can measure its complexity or fathom the intricacies of how it works. Try all you might, you will never understand it - a big fat nothing is what you will get even after several years of trying. Just go ahead and try it, I promise you you will certainly fail.

Please be careful what you write, you stunned the list with your insensitivity.

[Anne]

If 1% is "a big fat nothing," then why is 1 in 150 (less than three quarters of one percent) a big fat epidemic?

[Sonja Lopez]

A drowning person will grab onto a twig for survival. Maybe this is an sign that they are starting to feel the pressure and this is the desperate attempt to grab onto something. Can they not see how completely ridiculous it all sounds?! I have colleagues that are not involved in this controversy/autism world that are commenting on the ludicrous 1% announcement. Keep grabbing CDC, the twigs are getting smaller!

Sonja