Environmental Contaminations and Bioterrorism - Foods, Fodder, Microplastics, and Pathogens

Corona has been causing a loss of an estimated 20 million peoples lives around the world, via direct and indirect effects, with some of the most severe losses striking the United States and the Russian Federation. Infections did in some cases show a geographic clustering, e.g. at Tyson Foods in the United States (10,000 contaminated people), at the Danish food company Danish Crown (160+ people) (processed foods), with infested salmon also found at a Chinese market. As it happens, people in the food industry show 10-100 higher rates of infection with corona, than others. It is also known that when food handled by sick people is eaten, the virus may enter the epithelium at roof of the mouth and the respiratory duct can become infected. Also, people seem to be defecating out corona virus, as it is found in sewage (via genetic tests).

Pathogenic viruses have been found before in foods, though they are less easy to detect than bacteria which can be observed directly under the microscope, stained, or cultured. A study from 2015 (Penetti et al.) found a series of cancer-causing viruses (e.g. Merkel virus) in hamburgers and other minced meats. These findings may provide part of the explanation for the association between processed foods and cancers - and for the fact that eating more processed foods seems to lead to a greater risk of various forms of brain harm. Several of the cancer viruses are associated with brain harm. Noro virus, that causes food poisoning in 600 million+ people per year, has also been found to contaminate food. Additionally, re. HIV, infected people could in theory be contaminating foods especially during the years before they are noticeably sick. Most tragically, 30 million peoples' lives have been lost world wide due to this horrifying virus. Another terrible viral disease, polio, has in previous work been found in trace amounts in cheese. 

Another contaminants, microplastics have been found to contaminate many foods and drinks in recent years, and it is possible that such could have viruses adhered to them or that viruses may even have fallen into them (Fjerdingstad, research proposal 2018). This can be examined by testing food samples and tissues samples for pathogenic viruses using Oxford Nanopore Sequencing technologies (that will detect all viruses without the need for a priory hypotheses) --- and testing for the presence of microplastics using fluorescent staining with Red Nile and/ or via electron microscopy. Also a series of genetic tests for viruses can be done on food samples, using sets of tests cracking open or NOT cracking open microplastics (more hereon later).

Lastly, it is known that the former Warzaw Pact created a vast bioweapons program, Biopreparats and GlavMicroBioProm, that allegedly involved testing HIV and other viruses for use as a bioweapon. After 1992 there were concerns that middle Eastern countries or China would redeploy this program.My Organsation argues via me, who was shortlisted for the US Defense intelligence Agency (2017), the US Armys Criminal Investigation Command, and the US Secret Service as well as the US Defense Health Agency and US National Institutes of Health, and the US National Science Foundation (as Program Director), that it is important to test whether Biopreparats was ever deployed or has been redeployed. This can be done using Oxford Nanopore sequencing tests combined with e.g. electron microscopy, to examine whether foods and human gut tissues of people sich from HIV or corona harbor microplastics with viruses. 

I have submitted two research proposals on the above and parts of these issues since 2018, and have written to the United States scientists and to other parts of West NATO, East NATO (since 2019), Ukraine, Russia (since 2019, Supreme court, Duma, Federation Council, UN Mission, and Soldiers' Mothers Association), China (since 2019, then Premier Kequiang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PLA), Japan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Africa about the above.

Foods, Water, and Air Contaminants, Pathogens - Brain Health, and Cancers

The below is MY intellectual property and part of ongoing research funding efforts, manuscript writing, and scientific higher employment seeking

- one part would easily release viruses, some will say, although macrophages would gobble all up internally. Add to that the project is interesting, as I argue, and would rapidly lead to establishing certain relations with some parts perhaps then not carried out.

Association of microplastics in processed food, pathogens, air particulates with human health

Air pollution and the associated particulate matter have been found to be linked to neurodegenerative brain diseases and inflammatory diseases of e.g. the heart and lungs. The association is particularly strong for the smallest size class (PM2.5) of particles (diameter below 2,500 nm) that can penetrate further into the lungs and from there into the body and end up in the brain, or which can directly by way of the olfactory nerve canals enter into the brain. Once in the tissues, inflammatory effects ensure. Negative effects include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Attention Deficit Disorder, and dementia. Dementia, e.g., occurs at greater levels in women exposed to air particulates and in those who live closer to streets (in the US) and is more pronounced in men and uneducated people (in China) where considerable cognitive reduction is reported in the most polluted cities.

Exposure to polluted air correlates with increased inflammatory cytokine levels and reductions in cortical volume in male mice , structural brain defects possibly causing juvenile delinquency, a thinner cortex in human fetuses and children accompanied by impaired self-inhibition, a lower cortical volume in male mice, neuronal apotosis and synaptic function changes, and affects the development of the hippocampus. Also, brain lesions were discovered in more than half of the children and dogs examined in a study on Mexico City, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's pathology were found in children. Equally, changed blood flow patterns have been reported for people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, possibly due to the occlusion of blood vessels. Microvasculatory changes (microbleeding) also occur in people exposed to air pollution. Exposure to air particulates (mainly carbon nanotubes) have additionally be associated with asthma in Parisian children in France, and carbon nanotubes were found in the lungs of first responders after 9/11 in NYC, accompanied by the formation of granulomas (an inflammatory response to foreign bodies). Also, air particulates occur in people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, where plaques appear to be formed around particulates. Air particulate pollution therefore is connected to some of the most serious and most devastating diseases affecting mankind, and medical treatment of neurodegenerative diseases alone costs the United States some 800 billion dollars a year. While individual countries may impose limits on air pollution, particulates can be transported far in the air (dust clouds from China travelling around the Earth or particulates from Europe reaching North America and Africa), and so combating negative health effects of air pollution is an international issue.

While the association between neurodegeneration and air particulates is mainly correlative (but see a study on mice), then the statistical strength of the association is very strong (references above). The causal mechanisms in part remain uncertain but may derive from an inflammatory immune reaction to these foreign bodies (increased cytokine levels, granulomas, microglial cell activation and the deposition of complement proteins leading to white matter loss). Also, heat shock protein production is associated with both neurodegenerative and nervous system diseases, but may also have protective effects against inflammation.

Most air particulates in electron microscope studies have been shown to be anthropogenic carbon nanotubes, and such are emitted by diesel cars. Carbon nanotubes are capable of absorbing near-infrared and emitting it in the infrared spectrum (an effect employed for heating tumor cells to death after injecting carbon nanotubes). Such effects, even if very mild, may be unfortunate in human brains, especially in cities known to constitute so-called heat-islands and given global warming. Denaturing of proteins (which can occur due to heating or cooling) can lead to alternative conformations and even protein plaques or neurofibrillary tangles, and such characterize Alzheimer's disease having made some call it a double-protein misfolding disease (beta-amyloid plaques, tau tangles) as well as Parkinson's disease. The role of very localized heating is probably very minor, though; cold denaturing seems to be more important as lower core temperatures have been discovered in Alzheimer's patients. The phenomenon of overheating neurons in Parkinsons' disease, where metabolism is elevated so much that it causes energy-depletion and neuronal death is interesting, nevertheless.Other particulates than those found in exhausts can enter human brains. Notably, micro/nanoplastics are prevalent particulates in the air and in many foods (e.g. in seafoods and other foods such as honey, water, beer, and mineral water, found in some 200 food species). Nanoplastics can translocate from foods and be inhaled and in many organisms such plastics are transmitted up the food chain and translocate into different tissues / organs. For example, studies on fish and mussels have shown that the plastics move out of the guts and into the tissues, and experimental fish studies prove that plastics can end up in the brain where they can cause altered behavior or brain damage. In fact, negative effects have been found at the biochemical, hormonal, developmental, behavioral and apparent neurological level in animals. The mechanisms are not yet well-studied but likely involve inflammatory effects or occlusions of blood vessels (reduced blood flow is linked to e.g. Parkinson's disease.

I therefore hypothesize that nano /microplastics particulates may be causally associated with braindiseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, reduced cognition, and dementia and with general neurodegeneration in humans. A recent study showed that the average human ingests 50,000 pieces of plastics a day and inhales the same number, and if drinking bottled water these numbers can be twice as high. ​I propose to also investigate the prevalence of micro/nanoplastics in processed foods, as such foods have often been linked to various diseases, including inflammatory diseases of the heart and colon cancers and may be containing plastic particles that can cause inflammatory reactions in brains too. Both micro/nanoplastics from food and air particulates may also have adsorbed heavy metals and pesticides (DDT, PCBs) which can have neurodegenerative effects.

Viruses have separately been connected up to neurodegenerative diseases (flu virus, herpes virus, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder) causing various inflammatory responses including elevated levels of cytokines, attacks on neurons by microglia, and protein aggregation. We propose that viruses may be carried into human bodies via air particulates or other particles. That viruses can indeed be transported in the air alongside particulates and that particulates may modify the infectivity of viruses is known. Some of the viruses that have already been detected in brain tissues are in fact capable of surviving in soils and water for weeks and so could be brought into food and translocate into human bodies via micro/nanoplastics (e.g. herpes and Epstein Barr). Micro/nanoplastics may also have bacteria absorbed that may induce neurodegeneration. ​I therefore suggest ​that the association of both carbon-based air particulates and plastics with deleterious viruses has to be examined.

I propose ​to dissolve away the particulates that are likely to be causing neurodegeneration. This weaim to do using plastic and carbon-degrading enzymes from bacteria, fungi, and immune cells. ​Also, I aim to ​use various methods for distributing these enzymes or their mRNA/ DNA into brains (oral cure,biodegradable nanospheres, gene therapy on macrophages and neutrophils). Reducing the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases by limiting air pollution via lawmakers, environmental protection etc is an important way to prevent human tragedy, and is absolute one that should be supported. We, however, want to go further and establish a method to clean up brains and so to assist in rescuing patients' brains. This may also allow making stem cell treatments to recover brain function more efficient. Lastly, ​I propose to source track air particulates and micro/nanoplastics to understand their origin and so combat their emission.

I will recruit researchers to determine the prevalence of micro/nanoplastics in processed foods and in the human tissue matrix of healthy and diseased individuals and characterize the plastics and carbon-based /air particulates found in granulomas, heart plaques, and brain tissue samples from a long series of countries. Then we will compare the particulates from food and the human matrix with particulates captured on air filters around the world, for the purposes of source tracking. We will test whether particulates are accompanied by any viruses known to be associated with neurodegeneration, using Oxford nanopore direct RNA and DNA sequencing techniques. Also, we will test whether heavy metals or pesticides are adsorbed onto the particles. Finally, we will do exp microscopy using fluorescent stains (FISH for viruses, and Red Nile staining of plastics) to examine the association of particulates and viruses with brain damage.

Next, we will make use of enzymes from plastic and carbon degrading organisms to develop a method to dissolve away particulates inside the human matrix, using tissue model systems (hippocampal slice cultures and organ-on-a-chip human models) and mice models. A series of bacteria and fungi have, as mentioned, been shown to be capable of degrading various plastics (list them, via a cutinase/ lipase) and we will screen a set more for their capacity to break down different plastics. Also naturally occurring immune cells in mammalian bodies, macrophages, neutrophils, and foreign giant cells are capable of slowly degrading carbon nanotubes and to a certain degree some plastics, (e.g. macrophages degrading PCU via esterases). In fact, it has been suggested that macrophages sense carbon nanotubes as a kind of pathogen, and similar effects occur with respect to microglial cells (a form of macrophages) when these encounter air particulates.

We will strive to boost the natural biodegradation, which is necessary as carbon nanotubes can often linger in the human body and cause granuloma formation. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes have, for example, been found to degrade more slowly and functionalization (biochemical molecules attached to the tubes) can also lead to greater biopersistence and so can likely any contamination with plastics. The idea of boosting gene expression has already been examined as carbon nanotubes are used as a vector for bringing in DNA for gene therapy and for tumor treatments and have suggested as background for imaging studies. After obtaining efficient enzymes to breakdown all types of plastics and tubes found, we will test the options of 1) flushing tissues with enzymes, simulating an oral cure, 2) using biodegradable nanospheres to supply the tissues and cells with the enzymes (see work on insulin). Lastly, 3) we will perform recombinant DNA techniques to endow stem cell cultures and mice with a carbon and plastic degrading immune systems. Different viral vectors, liposome delivery, and a diversity of promoters will be tested.

To carry out this work proposed here, I have striven to form an extremely strong team of international experts in all pertinent fields. A series of researchers stated their strong interests in joing this project written by me (every idea, argument, plan, word). Dr. Perry is a ​Semmes Distinguished University Chair in Neurobiology, Chief Scientist of the Brain Health Consortium and Professor of Biology and Chemistry ​at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and Dr. Finch is an ARCO-William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Both are experts on neurobiology and neurodegeneration caused by air pollution. Dr. Heusinkveld, RIVM, the Netherlands, has expertise on particulates, pesticides and neurodegenerative effects, Dr. Loeschner at the Danish Technical University, is an expert in the detection of nanoparticles in foods and nanoparticulate kinetics, while Dr. Kolosnjaj-Tabi, IPBS, France, is a specialist on nanotoxicology and on the detection of nanoparticles including carbon nanotubes in environmental/biological samples, and on nanoparticulate kinetics, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, histology, and chemical analyses. Dr. Sioutas is an expert in the capture of air particulates via concentrators, the characterization of the ​physical and chemical characteristics of atmospheric ultrafine particles and on health effects of air pollution.

I am an expert in evolutionary genetics and molecular genetics needed for DNA sequencing of the plastics/ carbon nanotube degrading bacteria and fungi and for direct RNA/ DNA nanopore sequencing of viruses, and has expertise on ecology (necessary for source tracking), fluorescent microscopy, working on micro/nanoplastics and health effects, and is the only force behind all hypotheses and ideas. ​Drs. Ezzat and Dudley are very experienced with respect to the links between viruses and neurodegeneration, and are affiliated with the Wennergreen Institute, Sweden, and Mount Sinai Medical School, NY, respectively. Drs. ​XX [I have taken contact, EJF​]at the Universities of ​xxx are experts on carbon and plastic degrading enzymes found in fungi and bacteria and human immune cells and will be in charge of research to test enzymes that will degrade the different kinds of nano/microplastics found in processed foods and in the human brain, and the carbon particles and other particles from the air. Drs. ​XX, [​I have taken contact, EJF​]​Universities of ​xx, are experts in gene therapy via recombinant DNA techniques and applied to stem cells that produce immune cells and will also perform the functional genomics analyses. They will test different vectors and also lead the efforts to enhance expression of plastic/ carbon degrading genes and its timing via testing different promoters. Dr. McGeehan at the Department of Energy laboratory at the University of Portsmouth, UK, is a specialist on the 3D atomic structure of enzymes, using the Diamond Light Source which is the UK's national synchrotron science facility. Dr. ​zzz [I have taken contact, EJF​] at the University of ​xx is a specialist in drug delivery via biodegradable nanospheres (e.g. made of PGLA), and Dr. ​xxx [DF1] [I have taken contact, EJF​] at the University of ​xxx​, has much expertise on organ-on-a-chip systems to test drugs, while Dr. ​He, University of xxx, has great knowledge on carbon nanotubes and will work with Dr. Kolosnjaj-Tabi and me on source-tracking carbon nanotubes, making use of particulates from food, human tissues, and air filters around the world. (Please excuse that the last part is still in prep).

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Microplastics, Contaminants, Viruses and Skin Cancers