The spectrum of ASIA: ‘Autoimmune (Auto-inflammatory) Syndrome induced by Adjuvants’

An interesting article was published by Lupus,  a fully peer reviewed international journal devoted exclusively to lupus (and related disease) research about the newly coined term ASIA:

During the past year a new syndrome was introduced and termed ASIA, ‘Autoimmune (Auto-inflammatory) Syndrome induced by Adjuvants’. This syndrome assembles a spectrum of immune-mediated diseases triggered by an adjuvant stimulus. The use of medical adjuvants has become common practice and substances such as aluminum adjuvant are added to most human and animal vaccines.

ASIA probably represents only the tip of the iceberg. Encouraging physicians and patients to reportadjuvant-related conditions will enable a better estimation of the true prevalence as well as the width of ASIA spectrum. It seems that the role of adjuvants in the pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases can no longer be ignored, and the medical community must look towards producing safer adjuvants. Studies that will address individual riskfactors as well as different adjuvant-related ones are therefore urgently needed.

N Agmon-Levin, GRV Hughes and Y Shoenfeld: The spectrum of ASIA: ‘Autoimmune (Auto-inflammatory) Syndrome induced by Adjuvants’ Lupus (2012) 21, 118–120

Direkt link: http://lup.sagepub.com/content/21/2/118.full.pdf+html