Journal of Clinical and Cellular Immunology
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9899
ISSN: 2155-9899
Yehuda Shoenfeld
Keynote: J Clin Cell Immunol
Four enigmatic medical conditions were described recently, all characterized by hyperactive immune response and similar clinical and laboratory manifestations. These conditions (siliconosis, Gulf War Syndrome, macrophagic myofasciitis syndrome and post-vaccination phenomena) imply that environmental factors may play a role in inducing or aggravating autoimmunity and auto-inflammation. In rare occasions vaccines may induce autoimmune or auto-inflammatory conditions both in animals and in humans. These conditions - defined diseases (Gullian-Barre syndrome) or enigmatic ones - have been reported following vaccines and vaccination protocols. The susceptibility factors and the temporal association between vaccines and these immune mediated reactions remain to be defined; however, the similarities between vaccines and infections and the addition of adjuvants to almost every vaccine are considered major contributors to such adverse events. In MMF a cause was clearly delineated. MMF is a rare condition caused by deposition of alum, an adjuvant in different vaccines, which cause an immune mediated muscles disease. In genetically prone patients, alum may induce this syndrome. Another similar phenomenon is exposure to silicones. In a study, a group of patients with silicone breast implants had a statistically significant increase in 16 of 28 investigated symptoms consistent with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome criteria, compared to a group of women who underwent reduction mammoplasties, congruent with the FDA?s establishment of a link between fibromyalgia and ruptured silicone implants. A common denominator to these syndromes is the trigger entailing adjuvant activity. We suggest including these four conditions in one syndrome, the "Autoimmune Syndrome Induced by adjuvants" (ASIA).
Yehuda Shoenfeld is the Founder and Head of the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, at the Sheba Medical Center which is affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in Tel-Aviv University, in Israel. He is the Incumbent of the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair for Research of Autoimmune Diseases at the Tel-Aviv University. He received the EULAR prize in 2005, in Vienna, Austria: "The infectious etiology of anti-phospholipid syndrome". He has received a gold medal from the Slovak Society of Physicians for his contribution to Israel - Slovakia collaboration (March 2006), and is honorary member of the Hungarian Association of Rheumatology. In UC Davis, USA, he received the Nelson?s Prize for Humanity and Science for 2008. In 2009 he was honored as Doctoris Honoris Causa, from Debrecen University (Hungary), and from 2009 he is honorary member of the Slovenian National Academy of Sciences. He has recently been awarded a Life Contribution Prize in Internal Medicine in Israel, 2012. He has educated a long list of students (>25) being heads of departments and institutes.