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Query: UMLS:C0409974 (lupus)
 22,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Aluminium oxyhydroxide (alum), a nanocrystalline compound forming agglomerates, has been used in vaccines for its immunological adjuvant effect since 1927. Alum is the most commonly used adjuvant in human and veterinary vaccines, but the mechanisms by which it stimulates immune responses remain incompletely understood. Although generally well tolerated, alum may occasionally cause disabling health problems in presumably susceptible individuals. A small proportion of vaccinated people present with delayed onset of diffuse myalgia, chronic fatigue and cognitive dysfunction, and exhibit very long-term persistence of alum-loaded macrophages at the site of previous intramuscular (i.m.) immunization, forming a granulomatous lesion called macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF). Clinical symptoms associated with MMF are paradigmatic of the recently delineated 'autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants' (ASIA). The stereotyped cognitive dysfunction is reminiscent of cognitive deficits described in foundry workers exposed to inhaled Al particles. Alum safety concerns will largely depend on whether the compound remains localized at the site of injection or diffuses and accumulates in distant organs. Animal experiments indicate that biopersistent nanomaterials taken up by monocyte-lineage cells in tissues, such as fluorescent alum surrogates, can first translocate to draining lymph nodes, and thereafter circulate in blood within phagocytes and reach the spleen, and, eventually, slowly accumulate in the brain.
Lupus 2012 Feb
PMID:Macrophagic myofasciitis: characterization and pathophysiology. 2223 51

Alum (AlK(SO(4))(2)) is an adjuvant commonly utilized in vaccines, and is a ubiquitous element used extensively in contemporary life. Food, air, water, waste, the earth's surface, and pharmaceuticals all represent pathways of aluminum (Al) exposure. Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic relapsing intestinal inflammation in genetically susceptible individuals and is caused by yet unidentified environmental factors. Al is a potential factor for the induction of inflammation in CD, and its immune activities share many characteristics with the immune pathology of CD: many luminal bacterial or dietary compounds can be adsorbed to the metal surface and induce Th1 profile cytokines, shared cytokines/chemokines, co-stimulatory molecules, and intracellular pathways and stress-related molecular expression enhancement, affecting intestinal macrobiota, trans-mural granuloma formation, and colitis induction in an animal CD model. The inflammasome plays a central role in Al mode of action and in CD pathophysiology. It is suggested that Al adjuvant activity can fit between the aberrations of innate and adaptive immune responses occurring in CD. The CD mucosa is confronted with numerous inappropriate bacterial components adsorbed on the Al compound surface, constituting a pro-inflammatory supra-adjuvant. Al fits the diagnostic criteria of the newly described autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants. If a cause and effect relationship can be established, the consequences will greatly impact public health and CD prevention and management.
Lupus 2012 Feb
PMID:Aluminum as an adjuvant in Crohn's disease induction. 2223 58