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Rev Environ Health 2015; 30(4): 251–271
*Corresponding author: Philippe Irigaray, PhD, ARTAC, 57-59 rue de
la convention, 75015 Paris, Phone: +33 (0)1 45 78 53 54,
Fax: +33 (0)1 45 78 53 50, E-mail: philippei.artac@gmail.com;
Association for Research and Treatments Against Cancer (ARTAC),
F-75015 Paris, France; and European Cancer and Environment
Research Institute (ECERI), Brussels, Belgium
Dominique Belpomme: Paris V University Hospital, France; and
European Cancer and Environment Research Institute (ECERI),
Brussels, Belgium
Christine Campagnac: Hospital Director, seconded from Assistance
Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France; and European
Cancer and Environment Research Institute (ECERI), Brussels, Belgium
Dominique Belpomme, Christine Campagnac and Philippe Irigaray*
Reliable disease biomarkers characterizing and
identifying electrohypersensitivity and multiple
chemical sensitivity as two etiopathogenic
aspects of a unique pathological disorder
DOI 10.1515/reveh-2015-0027
Received September 11, 2015; accepted November 2, 2015
Abstract: Much of the controversy over the causes of electro-
hypersensitivity (EHS) and multiple chemical sensitivity
(MCS) lies in the absence of both recognized clinical crite-
ria and objective biomarkers for widely accepted diagnosis.
Since 2009, we have prospectively investigated, clinically
and biologically, 1216 consecutive EHS and/or MCS-self
reporting cases, in an attempt to answer both questions. We
report here our preliminary data, based on 727 evaluable of
839 enrolled cases: 521 (71.6%) were diagnosed with EHS, 52
(7.2%) with MCS, and 154 (21.2%) with both EHS and MCS.
Two out of three patients with EHS and/or MCS were female;
mean age (years) was 47. As inflammation appears to be a
key process resulting from electromagnetic field (EMF) and/
or chemical effects on tissues, and histamine release is
potentially a major mediator of inflammation, we system-
atically measured histamine in the blood of patients. Near
40% had a increase in histaminemia (especially when both
conditions were present), indicating a chronic inflammatory
response can be detected in these patients. Oxidative stress
is part of inflammation and is a key contributor to damage
and response. Nitrotyrosin, a marker of both peroxynitrite
(ONOO°-) production and opening of the blood-brain bar-
rier (BBB), was increased in 28% the cases. Protein S100B,
another marker of BBB opening was increased in 15%.
Circulating autoantibodies against O-myelin were detected
in 23%, indicating EHS and MCS may be associated with
autoimmune response. Confirming animal experiments
showing the increase of Hsp27 and/or Hsp70 chaperone
proteins under the influence of EMF, we found increased
Hsp27 and/or Hsp70 in 33% of the patients. As most patients
reported chronic insomnia and fatigue, we determined the
24h urine 6-hydroxymelatonin sulfate (6-OHMS)/creatinin
ratio and found it was decreased ( < 0.8) in all investigated
cases. Finally, considering the self-reported symptoms of
EHS and MCS, we serially measured the brain blood flow
(BBF) in the temporal lobes of each case with pulsed cer-
ebral ultrasound computed tomosphygmography. Both
disorders were associated with hypoperfusion in the cap-
sulothalamic area, suggesting that the inflammatory pro-
cess involve the limbic system and the thalamus. Our data
strongly suggest that EHS and MCS can be objectively
characterized and routinely diagnosed by commercially
available simple tests. Both disorders appear to involve
inflammation-related hyper-histaminemia, oxidative stress,
autoimmune response, capsulothalamic hypoperfusion and
BBB opening, and a deficit in melatonin metabolic availabil-
ity; suggesting a risk of chronic neurodegenerative disease.
Finally the common co-occurrence of EHS and MCS strongly
suggests a common pathological mechanism.
Keywords: biomarkers; cerebral hypoperfusion; electro-
hypersensitivity; limbic system; multiple chemical
sensitivity.
Introduction
In 1962, Randolph first described clinically (1) what is today
commonly called multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) (2); a
human pathological disorder that has been identified and
defined in 1999 during an international consensus meeting
on the basis of the six following criteria: “1. The symptoms
are reproducible with [repeated chemical] exposure; 2. The
condition is chronic; 3. Low levels of exposure [lower than
previously or commonly tolerated] result in manifestations
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
of the syndrome; 4. The symptoms improve or resolve when
the inciting agents are removed; 5. Responses occur to mul-
tiple chemically unrelated substances; 6. [Added in 1999]:
Symptoms involve multiple organ systems” (3). Although
the precise worldwide prevalence of MCS remains unclear,
it is expected that due to the vastly increased number of
the various chemical products that have been put on the
market during the last few decades, MCS is becoming an
increasing prevalent pathological disorder (4).
The recent rise of wireless telecommunication world-
wide also confronts scientists with the question of whether
anthropogenic electromagnetic fields (EMFs) such as
emitted by cell phones, wireless internet, and high voltage
power lines, can cause adverse health effects as it is the case
for chemicals. In 1991 Rea first described what he called
electromagnetic field sensitivity (5). Six years later, Bergqvist
etal., in a report prepared by a European group of experts for
the European Commission coined the term electrohypersen-
sitivity (EHS) to encompass in a unique concept the clinical
conditions in which EHS self-reporting patients complain of
symptoms they attribute to EMF exposure (6). Since 1998,
Santini et al. in France, reported symptoms experienced by
users of digital cellular phones and the health risk of people
living near cellular phone base stations (7, 8).
In 2004, because of the increasing worldwide preva-
lence of EHS, the World Health Organization (WHO)
organized an international scientific workshop in Prague
(Czech Republic) in order to define and characterize EHS.
Although not acknowledging EHS as being caused by
EMF exposure, the Prague working group defined EHS
as “a phenomenon where individuals experience adverse
health effects while using or being in the vicinity of devices
emanating electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic fields …
whatever its cause, EHS is a real and sometimes a debili-
tating problem for the affected persons” (9). However, fol-
lowing this meeting, WHO proposed to use the alternative
term “idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) attrib-
uted to electromagnetic fields” (IEI – EMF), indicating
there is no proven causality between the occurrence of IEI
– EMF (formerly EHS) and EMF exposure (9).
In view of the poor knowledge of pathogenesis and
etiology of EHS and MCS, most mainstream medical,
sanitary and societal bodies maintain there is not suffi-
cient scientific proof to support the concept that clinical
symptoms experienced by EHS and/or MCS self-reporting
patients are really caused by EMF and/or chemical expo-
sure, respectively. This is particularly the case for EHS
patients, for whom in comparison to sham controls, the
reproduction of clinical symptoms in the presence of
EMFs have globally failed to demonstrate a causal link, in
blind or double-blind studies (10).
Moreover, the lack of recognized disease biomarkers
objectively characterizing EHS and MCS has resulted in
clinical symptoms being dismissed as psychogenic; and/
or EHS and MCS are conflated with psychosomatic or
psychiatric diseases, and not recognized as true organic
disorders caused by the environment (11–16). This is par-
ticularly the case for radiofrequency EMF, for which some
scientists believe that EHS is an uncertain and confusing
concept (17); whereas some others, on the basis of their
own clinical experience agree that excessive exposure
may cause EHS (5, 18, 19).
Here, we present our own experiences based on the
preliminary analysis of a series of 1216 consecutive investi-
gated cases of self-claimed EHS and/or MCS, in the frame-
work of an ongoing prospective clinical study aiming at
identifying and characterizing EHS and MCS both clini-
cally and biologically; through the use of biomarkers
detected and measured in the peripheral blood and the
urine of patients. Our data clearly shows that EHS and
MCS should be recognized as genuine somatic pathologi-
cal entities; that patients with EHS and/or MCS are non-
psychosomatic nor psychiatric patients; and probably
that EHS and MCS are two etiopathogenic aspects of a
single pathological disorder.
Search for reliable disease
biomarkers
The identification and measurement of reliable biomark-
ers is a crucial step for identifying and characterizing dis-
eases. This is a fortiori the case for any new pathological
entity or clinical syndrome such as MCS, EHS or other
environmental intolerance syndrome. However, to our
knowledge, such an approach has proven inconclusive for
MCS (20) and EHS (21).
We thus searched for characteristic biomarkers and
selected a battery of biological tests which could be rou-
tinely used clinically in environmental medicine practice
for taking care of EHS and/or MCS self-reporting patients.
In addition, due to the reported clinical symptoms,
we systematically measured the brain blood flow (BBF) in
both cerebral hemispheres of these patients by using echo-
doppler of the middle cerebral artery (22) and measured
centimeter by centimeter brain pulsatility by using pulsed
ultrasound-based cerebral computerized tomosphygmog-
raphy, which allows centimetric resolution pulsed ultra-
sound recording of cerebral pulsatility (23–25), to localize
more precisely the BBF in the different areas of the two
temporal lobes. Our working hypothesis was that under
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
253
the influence of environmental factors such as EMFs and/
or chemicals, some neuro-inflammation and oxidative
stress might occur in the brain, with blood-brain barrier
(BBB) disruption as a consequence.
We thus routinely measured the inflammation-asso-
ciated high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) in the
peripheral blood; and levels of vitamin D2-D3, as it has
been suggested that low levels of its metabolite, the secos-
teroid 25 hydroxy-vitamin D (25-D) could be a consequence
rather than a cause of inflammatory and/or autoimmune
processes (26), and that vitamin D deficiency is associated
with abnormal development and functioning of the central
nervous system (CNS) (27, 28). Since it has been shown that
upon brain injury, degeneration or infection, the inflam-
matory response may trigger degranulation of mast cells,
leading to a massive release of histamine in the blood (29),
we systematically measured the levels of histamine in the
peripheral blood. In addition, as the best known mast
cell degranulation mechanism involve crosslinking of the
high affinity surface IgE receptor (30), we also measured
total IgE levels in the peripheral blood. It is well known
that histamine is a potent mediator of inflammation and is
able to increase BBB permeability through oxidative and/
or nitrosative stress (31, 32). So we looked for possible oxi-
dative and/or nitrosative stress-related biomarkers of BBB
disruption; and identified nitrotyrosine (NTT), because
it results from the toxic effects of peroxynitrite (ONOO°
-
)
on proteins (33–36). Such a BBB opening marker has also
been shown for the calcium-binding protein S100B, pro-
duced and released predominantly by peri-vascular astro-
cytes (37–40). During the inflammatory process, it is well
known that cells produce excessive amount of superoxide
(O
2
°) and nitric oxide (NO°), and that although NO° is a
weak free radical resulting from the action of nitric oxide
synthase, its excessive intracellular production is associ-
ated with cytotoxic properties because of the formation of
extremely reactive nitrogen species such as peroxynitrite.
The biochemical reaction in the form of O
2
°+NO° = > ONOO°
-
may thus explain why NTT (which results from oxidative
and nitrosative stresses) is associated with BBB disruption
(32,41). Dosage of free NTT and protein-combined NTT as
well as protein S100B in the peripheral blood of EHS and/
or MCS patients was thus an important element of the
battery of biological tests we used.
We also considered that non thermal radiofrequency
often is a repetitive stress leading inter alia to continuous
heat shock protein (HSP) over-expression and release in
exposed tissues, particularly in the brain (42–46). HSPs
are a family of highly conserved proteins with chaperone
functions acting to maintain the structural conformation
of cellular proteins. Their over-expression under stress
conditions which promotes an inflammatory response is
well known (47–49). We thus speculated that the major
inducible stress protein HSP70, which has been shown to
oppose to neuronal apoptosis (50, 51) and to BBB disrup-
tion (51, 52), so eliciting some neuroprotection could be
involved as it could be also the case for HSP27 (53, 54).
However, under chronic EMF exposure it was reported
that, as compared to controls, intracellular HSP70 levels
may decline (55). We thus systematically measured HSP70
and HSP27 levels in the peripheral blood of EHS and/or
MCS patients in order to try to determine whether these
chaperone proteins are a marker of EMF and/or chemicals
chronic exposure; as it has been shown for non-thermal
EMF exposure in experimental studies (42–46).
Moreover, during oxidative and nitrosative stress
proteins may be extensively modified and denatured and
so acquire new epitopes which can explain their loss of
specificity and biological activity, hence the synthesis of
autoantibodies (56, 57). This is the case for EMF expo-
sure which has been shown to alter DNA replication and
mitosis and form abnormal proteins (42, 58, 59) and so
to produce electro-oxidation-related IgE autoantibodies
(60). We consequently hypothesized that under the influ-
ence of environmental EMFs and/or chemicals, CNS pro-
teins such as O-myelin may be so denatured that they
acquire autoantigenic properties. Consequently we thus
systematically searched for and measured autoantibodies
against O-myelin in the blood of patients.
Finally, since some effects of EMF exposure have
been reported to be mediated by the pineal hormone,
melatonin (61), and given the fact that in our series
many patients had sleep disturbance, we also systemati-
cally measured melatonin metabolism in these patients.
However, as measurement of endogenous melatonin in
urine is not useful because of its low unmetabolized levels
(62), we measured levels of its metabolite 6-hydroxyme-
latonin sulfate (6-OHMS) and creatinine in 24h urine, to
determine the 6-OHMS/creatinine ratio. Note that since
creatinine is excreted in a relatively constant amount in
each patients, we used this ratio to reduce the variability
of 6-OHMS measurement attributed to urine dilution.
The test battery for identifying and characterizing EHS
and MCS is summarized in Table1. Technical information
about the methods we used for carrying out all biological
tests and the BBF analysis are summarized as follows:
For the biomarker study, all patients were investi-
gated by using commercially available biochemical tests
and values for each patient were compared to the normal
reference values obtained from the commercial compa-
nies. Sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility of these
tests were thus those defined by these companies. Each
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
assay was performed according to the manufacturer’s
method. Hs-CRP and 25-OH vitamin D were measured
by using an automated immunoassay [Architect Ci 4100
(Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Chicago, IL, USA)];
for Histamine measurement we used an ELISA specific
test; for protein S100B, a quantitative automated chemi-
luminescent immunoassays [Liason S100 (DiaSorin
Deutschland GmbH, Dietzenbach, Germany)]; for NTT, a
competitive ELISA test (Cell Biolabs Inc., San Diego, CA,
USA); for anti-O-myelin antibody detection, a Western
Blot qualitative analysis (IMMCO Diagnostics, Buffalo,
NY, USA); for HSP 27 and HSP 70, specific high sensitiv-
ity enzymatic immunoassays (Stressgen Biotechnologies
Corporation, San Diego, CA, USA); and for 5-hydroxy-
melatonin-sulfate, a urine ELISA test (IBL International
GmbH, Hamburg, Germany).
In addition, to these biochemical tests we used a non-
invasive ultrasonic cerebral tomosphygmography method
that we specifically set-up to investigate the blood flow
in the patient temporal lobes and determined for each
patient a pulsometric index (PI) that we measured cen-
timeter by centimeter from the cortex to the diencephalic
medial area (see Figure1). This index varies between the
territories studied. In this study, Pi determination for each
cerebral territory in 727 EHS and/or MCS patients was
compared to a retrospective series of 141 normal subjects
which allowed to establish the normal median reference
values of PI (see Figure2). Finally since our study is still
ongoing we did not reported any statistical analysis. This
will follow in specific further papers.
Search for clinical diagnosis criteria
In 2009, at the time we initiated this prospective cohort
study, we were aware there was no available recognized
Table 1:Disease biomarkers investigated in self-reporting EHS
and/or MCS patients with their normal values.
Biomarker Normal range
High-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) ≤ mg/L
Vitamin D-D ≥ ng/mL
Histamine ≤ nmol/L
IgE ≤ UI/mL
Protein SB ≤. μg/L
Nitrotyrosine (NTT) ≥. μg/L and ≤. μg/mL
Heat shock protein (HSP) ≤ ng/mL
Heat shock protein (HSP) ≤ ng/mL
Anti-O-myelin autoantibodies Negative
Hydroxy-melatonin sulfate (-OHMS) ≥ ng/L and ≤ ng/L
-OHMS/creatinine ≥. and ≤
Probe
Skin
Bone
Cortex
Sub-Cortex
Superficial MCA
Deep MCA
Capsulothalamic area
Vertebrobasilar
Figure 1:Pulsometric index (PI) obtained by a computerized ultra-
sonic cerebral tomosphygmography (UCTS) in the different area of
temporal lobes.
Data are expressed as mean pulsometric index (PI). PI varies
between territories studied: 3+4 correspond to cortico sub-cortical
area; 3+4+5, to the superficial area of the middle cerebal artery
(MCA); 5+6+7, to the deep area of the MCA; 7, to the capsulotha-
lamic area; 3+4+5+6+7, to the complete area depending of the MCA;
8+9, to the vertebrobasilar area; 3+4+5+6+7+8+9, to the complete
temporal lobe.
biological markers for defining objectively EHS and MCS;
this led us to use clinical criteria as inclusion criteria. For
MCS, as already above mentioned, we used the six criteria
that had been reported in the 1999 international workshop
(3) and for EHS, we used similar criteria. However, as in an
unpublished feasibility study we showed that many EHS
patients when they are in the vicinity of chemicals may
present with olfactory abnormalities consisting in subjec-
tive odor disruption; we systematically added a seventh
clinical criteria to the six ones already defined during
the 1999 consensus meeting on MCS, in order to further
characterize clinically MCS and distinguish it from EHS.
Accordingly patients with MCS, unlike EHS patients, were
characterized not only by the simple odor intolerance,
but more specifically by symptoms of mucous inflam-
mation in the nose, the oropharynx and/or the laryngo-
tracheo-bronchus tract; manifesting clinically as rhinitis,
oropharyngeal dysesthesia or laryngitis and/or bronchos-
pasms, respectively.
To further avoid any confounding pathology, all
patients of the present prospective series have been
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255
interviewed face to face at length during their medical con-
sultation and questioned systematically about their past
medical history and the type and conditions of occurrence
of their clinical symptoms, thanks to the use of a validated
pre-established questionnaire. In addition, all patients
have been carefully physically examined. Also, before
inclusion, all patients were systematically investigated
by usual routine blood tests and medical imaging includ-
ing Brain MRI and/or scanner and carotid echodoppler in
order to eliminate any known unrelated CNS pathology.
Finally, based on the above clinical finding for both
EHS and MCS patients we used the following inclusion
criteria:
1. Absence of known pathology accounting for the
observed clinical symptoms;
2. Reproducibility of symptom occurrence under the
influence of EMFs and/or multiple chemicals what-
ever their incriminated source;
3. Regression or disappearance of symptoms in the case
of EMF and/or multiple chemical avoidance;
4. Chronic evolution;
5. Symptoms such as headache, superficial and/or deep
sensibility abnormalities, skin lesions, sympathetic-
nerve dysfunction, reduced cognitive ability includ-
ing loss of immediate memory and attention and/or
concentration deficiencies, insomnia, chronic fatigue
and depressive tendency, all main clinical symptoms
reported as non-specific symptoms in the scientific
literature (13, 19), but which when grouped together
may evoke clinically the diagnosis of EHS (data not
shown);
6. No serious pre-existing pathology such as atherosclero-
sis, diabetes, cancer; and/or neurodegenerative or psy-
chiatric diseases which have been associated with EHS
and/or MCS in the past or at the inclusion time but would
render difficult the interpretation of clinical symptoms
and biomarker data (see Section “EHS/MCS as a possi-
ble sentinel pathological disorder”); and finally
7. For each patient written informed consent.
Study of this large cohort of patients was not a case-
control study neither a randomized study so there was
no specific control group.
As depicted in Table2, on a total of 1216 investigated con-
secutive cases, 839 are presently analyzed of whom 727 are
evaluable, 521 with EHS (71.7%), 52 with MCS (7.1%) and
154 with both EHS and MCS (21.2%), regardless of whether
MCS occurred before or after EHS. Only 29 patients, i.e. 3%
claimed to suffer from EHS and/or MCS but did not meet
the inclusion criteria. In fact most of these patients claimed
to be electrohypersensitive. Although many of them were
associated with a putative neurologic or psychiatric disor-
der, EHS could not be clearly established. Also excluded
were patients with EHS and/or MCS who were in addition,
diagnosed as suffering from heavy pathology evidenced
after inclusion, or who were lost to follow-up, or for whom
results of the biological investigation were not available at
the time of analysis.
AB
Right
Left
UCTS
CORT.
SUP.
MCA
DEEP
MCA
CAPS.
THAL.
VERT.
BAS.
VERT.
BAS.
CAPS.
THAL.
DEEP
MCA
SUP.
MCA
CORT.
T
T
o
t
a
l
M
C
A
R
i
g
h
t
T
o
t
a
l
M
C
A
R
i
g
h
t
T
o
t
a
l
M
C
A
R
i
g
h
t
CORT.
SUP.
MCA
DEEP
MCA
CAPS.
THAL.
VERT.
BAS.
VERT.
BAS.
CAPS.
THAL.
DEEP
MCA
SUP.
MCA
CORT.
Right
Left
UCTS
Zonal perfusion capacities
Zonal perfusion capacities
Standard deviation of adult normality
Standard deviation of adult normality
T
o
t
a
l
M
C
A
R
i
g
h
t
Figure 2:Example of diagrams obtained by using UCTS exploring the global centimetric ultrasound pulsatility in the two temporal lobes of
a normal subject (A) and in a EHS self-reporting patient (B).
Measurements are expressed in Pulsometric index (PI). Note that in A and B mean values of PI in each explored area recorded is from the
cortex to the internal part of each temporal lobe; so on the left part of the two diagrams A and B for the right lobe from the left to the right;
and on the right part of these diagrams for the left lobe from the right to the left. Note also that in A (normal subject) all values are over the
normal median values whereas in B (EHS-self reporting patients) values in the capsulothalamic areas (the fifth and the second column for
the right and left temporal lobe, respectively) are under the normal median values.
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
Demographic panorama
This large cohort of investigated patients originated from
many different European countries, and from other coun-
tries worldwide such as the US, Canada, Australia, Russia,
China, Middle East and Africa. This allows some estima-
tion the demographic picture of so called EHS and/or MCS
patients. The demographic data are depicted in Table 2
and Figure3.
A noteworthy finding which was observed in many
countries is that women appear to be much more suscep-
tible to EHS and/or MCS than men, since in our series two
thirds are female, with no difference between EHS and
MCS rates. Note however, that the female predominance
appears to be more pronounced for patients with both
EHS and MCS, where three out of four are female (Table 2).
In this series, median age is about 47years and does
not differ according to EHS, MCS and EHS/MCS diagnosis.
As indicated in Figure 3, all age categories are represented
and mainly include young and old adults, but it appears
that adolescents may be also associated with EHS. This
may be due to their excessive use of wireless technology
(essentially mobile phones and other devices) at this age.
In fact, outside of the present series, we have observed
that infants and children could also be suffering from EHS.
Analysis of biochemical markers
Biomarker results are indicated in Tables 3–5 and in
Figure4.
Total
AB
CD
MCS
EHS
EHS/MCS
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Figure 3:Age categories according to the total number of evaluable patients (A) and to the three EHS (B), MCS (C) and EHS/MCS (D) ana-
lyzed groups of patients.
Table 2:Summary of the present ongoing prospective clinic-biological study of EHS and/or MCS-self reporting patients.
Patients groups Total EHS MCS EHS/MCS
Total investigated
Total presently analyzed
Neither EHS nor MCS
Not evaluable
Evaluable
Sex ratio W/ M W/ M W/ M W/ M
%/% %/% %/% %/%
Mean age .±. .±. .±. .±.
Median age [range]
a
[–] [–] [–] [–]
a
The range of values is indicated in square brackets, e.g. [minimum-maximum].
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Table 3:High-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP), immunoglobulin E (IgE), vitamin D2-D3 and histamine in the peripheral blood of EHS
and/or MCS self-reporting patients.
Patients groups EHS MCS EHS/MCS
n
hs-CRP (.%) (.%) (.%)
> mg/L [.–.] [.–] [.–.]
Vitamine D (.%) (.%) (.%)
< ng/mL [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
Vitamine D (.%) (.%) (.%)
≥ ng/mL and < ng/mL [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
Histamine / (%) / (.%) / (.%)
> nmol/L [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
IgE (.%) (.%) (.%)
> UI/mL [–.] [.–.] [.–.]
Note that for each biomarker the range of values is indicated in square brackets, e.g. [minimum-maximum].
Table 4:Protein S100B and nitrotyrosin (NTT) in the peripheral blood of EHS and/or MCS self-reporting patients.
Patients groups EHS MCS EHS/MCS
n
SB / (.%) / (.%) / (.%)
>. μg/L [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
NTT / (.%) / (%) / (.%)
>. μg/mL [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
Increased SB and/or NTT / (.%) / (.%) / (%)
Increased histamine, SB and/or NTT / (.%) / (%) / (.%)
Note that for each marker the range of values is indicated in square brackets, e.g. [minimum-maximum].
Table 5:HSP70 and HSP27 chaperone proteins and anti-O-myelin autoantibodies in the peripheral blood of EHS and/or MCS self-reporting
patients.
Patients groups EHS MCS EHS/MCS
n
Hsp / (.%) / (.%) / (.%)
> ng/mL [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
Hsp / (.%) / (.%) / (.%)
> ng/mL [.–.] [.–.] [.–.]
Hsp and/or Hsp / (.%) / (%) / (.%)
Anti-O-myelin autoantibodies / (.%) / (%) / (.%)
Note that for each marker the range of values is indicated in square brackets, e.g. [minimum–maximum].
High-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP)
An increase in hs-CRP levels was found globally in 107
patients (14.7% of the cases), and more precisely in 78
patients (15%), seven patients (13.5%) and 22 patients
(14.3%), respectively in the three EHS, MCS, EHS/MCS
individualized groups (Table 3); suggesting that in such
cases, patients were associated with some type of sys-
temic inflammation. We thus systematically looked for
unrelated causes of inflammation and/or infection in these
patients, but with the exception of three cases, we did not
found any. Furthermore, since hs-CRP is considered as a
biomarker of age-related cognitive decline or dementia,
and more particularly of Alzheimer’s disease (63,64), we
systematically searched for Alzheimer’s disease in these
patients. In two cases, Alzheimer’s disease was discov-
ered after inclusion and considered as possibly theresults
of excessive past EMF exposure (see Section “EHS/MCS as
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
a possible sentinel pathological disorder”). But, because
chronologically, Alzheimer’s disease appeared to follow
the initial occurrence of EHS, we considered that for these
two patients, Alzheimer’s disease might have been the
consequence of EHS rather than simply associated with
it. Nevertheless, these two cases were categorized as non-
evaluable cases in the present analysis.
Vitamin D2–D3
As indicated in Table 3, a profound decrease in the levels
of the secosteroid 25-D is found globally in 184 patients
(25.3% of the cases), and in 121 patients (23.2%), 12 patients
(23.1%) and 51 patients (33.1%) in the three groups, respec-
tively. As already discussed (see Section “Search for reli-
able disease biomarkers”), these data agree with the
concept that decrease in vitamin D2–D3 levels appear to be
a consequence rather than a cause of inflammation and so
need to be therapeutically normalized.
Histamine
An important finding in our study is the discovery that
histamine in the peripheral blood is increased in nearly
40% of the patients and that this increase does not differ
between the three groups investigated (Table 3). This
finding suggests that histamine is not only a natural clini-
cal biomarker of EHS and MCS, but also may play a crucial
role in the pathogenesis of both clinical entities, since it
has been shown to be not only a neurotransmitter pro-
duced and released by the CNS, but also an inflammatory
mediator produced and released by mast cells in many
inflammatory processes including neuro-inflammation
(see Section “Pathophysiological relevance”).
IgE
Levels of circulating IgE were found to be increased in
22%, 15.4% and 24.7% of the three EHS, MCS and MCS/EHS
groups, respectively. Since histamine release from mast
cells involve the high affinity IgE mast cell surface recep-
tor and IgE (30, 65), we searched for a correlation between
histamine and IgE levels in the peripheral blood of the
patients. As it will be further discussed, it seemed not to
be the case (see Section “Pathophysiological relevance”).
Protein S100B
Levels of circulating protein S100B have been found to be
globally increased in 107 patients (15.5%), with no differ-
ences between the three groups (Table 4). As we will dis-
cussed (see Section “Some insight into etiopathogeny”)
this finding confirms previously reported data showing
the glia-derived S100B protein is a biomarker of hypop-
erfusion-associated brain damage or dysfunction (39, 40,
66–68), and more particularly of neurodegenerative dis-
eases such as Alzheimer’s disease (69) and amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (70); but differs from the negative results
obtained in non EHS healthy subjects for whom protein
S100B levels has been shown to be normal within the 2h
following GSM mobile phone use (71–73).
Nitrotyrosin
Likewise, increased NTT blood levels have been detected
globally in 105 patients (29%), with no difference between
the three groups. Moreover, as indicated in Table 4, it
appears that increased levels of protein S100B and/or NTT
can be detected in approximately 55%–60% of the cases.
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
EHS/MCS (n=89)
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
EHS (n=300)
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
MCS (n=21)
Lower limit of normal
Mean
0.042±0.003
[0.002–0.625]
0.048±0.006
[0.001–0.343]
0.041±0.016
[0.005–0.344]
Figure 4:24H urine 6-OHMS/creatinine ratio in EHS and/or MCS self-reporting patients.
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259
Since, as previously indicated, protein S100B and NTT
could be potential markers of BBB disruption, we consider
that such disruption could be evidenced clinically in over
50% of the patients, whatever their EHS and/or MCS clini-
cal presentation.
HSP70 and HSP27
As indicated in Table 5, depending of the group consid-
ered, increased levels of the HSP70 and HSP27 chaperone
proteins were detected in the peripheral blood in about
7%–19% and about 11%–26% of patients, respectively.
Collectively, 25%–40% of the patients were found to be
associated with increased levels of HSP70 and/or HSP27,
without difference between the 3 so far individualized
groups, meaning that HSP70 and HSP27 are circulating
biomarkers not only of EMF chronic exposure as it is the
case in animal experimental studies (42–46) but also of
chemical chronic exposure. HSP70 and HSP27 seem to be
more frequent in EHS patients than in MCS patients.
Autoantibodies against O-myelin
As indicated in Table 5, autoantibodies against O-myelin
have been detected globally in 17% to nearly 29% of the
patients studied with no difference between the three
groups, suggesting that in these patients EHS and/or MCS
were associated with some type of autoimmune response.
Here too, it is more frequent in EHS than in MCS.
Melatonin
6-OHMS and creatinine were measured in the 24h urine
of a number of patients. As indicated in Figure 4, all inves-
tigated patients had a decrease in the 6-OHMS/creatinine
ratio; suggesting that these patients have decreased anti-
oxidant defenses (74, 75), and so may be at risk of chronic
diseases (see Sections “Pathophysiological relevance” and
“EHS/MCS as a possible sentinel pathological disorder”).
Moreover, this decrease might explain why such patients
present sleep disturbance.
Clinical forms of EHS and/or MCS without
detectable biomarkers
Increase in hs-CRP and vitamin D2–D3 blood levels are
non-specific biological parameters. On the other hand,
although none of our biomarkers are per se specific
(see Section “Some insight into etiopathogeny”) the
increased serum level of histamine, protein S100B and
NTT in the peripheral blood seems more characteristic
of EHS and MCS, because of their pathophysiological
relevance. However, as indicated in Table 4, increased
levels of histamine, protein S100B and/or NTT were
found in only 70%–80% of the patients, meaning that in
20%–30% of the cases in our series, EHS and MCS could
not be objectively characterized by these biomarkers.
However, in such patients in addition, to the clinical
picture the objective diagnosis of EHS and/or MCS could
still be made based on the abnormal recording of brain
pulsed ultrasound computed tomosphygmography.
Pathophysiological relevance
In our study we have shown that EHS and MCS both are
associated with the same biological abnormalities. This
strongly suggests that both pathological entities share a
unique common pathophysiological mechanism.
Since histamine was found to be increased in the
peripheral blood of nearly 40% of the patients, this mole-
cule appears to be a key pathogenic mediator, whatever the
environmental stressors. Indeed, the fact that histamine
levels were not found to be increased in all patients doesn’t
mean that patients for whom there is no histamine blood
level increase have no local histamine production and
release in their tissues or at other times. Moreover, we will
outline below that histamine is not just a neuro-inflamma-
tion mediator. Histamine plays a critical pathophysiologi-
cal role as a neurotransmitter in the brain. For example
neuronal histamine has been shown to be involved in the
sleep cycle, motor activity, synaptic plasticity and memory
(76–79): all types of neurologic and/or psychologic altered
functions or symptoms that we have observed clinically
in EHS and/or MCS bearing patients (data not shown). In
addition, histamine release from sympathetic nerves can
be experimentally induced by nerve stimulation (80) and
it has been shown that H1 receptor may play a major role
in the regulation of sympathetic nerve activity (81). This
may explain why EHS and/or MCS patients may present
clinically with some transitory sympathetic-related symp-
toms such as tachycardia, tachyarrhythmia and/or arterial
pressure instability (data not shown) when exposed to
EMF and/or chemical stressors (82). Moreover, following
ischemic-hypoxic damage, histamine release from nerve
endings has been found to be enhanced, possibly contrib-
uting to some neuroprotection (83).
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
However, histamine is also a unique molecule which
fulfils all criteria that have been historically established
for defining an inflammatory mediator (84). Histamine is
mainly produced and stored in perivascular tissue resi-
dent mast cells and circulating basophils, and released
in inflammatory tissues through established mechanisms
predominantly involving cell surface receptors. Regarding
histamine release from skin mast cells, the best known
degranulation mechanism involves IgE and the high affin-
ity IgE cell surface receptor (30).
In our study, we found elevated levels of circulating
IgE in about 20% of the patients, whatever the EHS and/or
MCS group considered. However, in such cases, we didn’t
find any positive correlation between the levels of circu-
lating histamine and the levels of circulating IgE nor the
presence of skin lesions. This suggests that skin lesions
and circulating histamine level increase in EHS and/or
MCS patients are not related to an allergic process.
Also it has been shown that advanced glycation end
products (AGEs) can activate mast cells through RAGE,
the receptor of AGEs, and may contribute to initiating a
vicious circle involving increased AGE formation and ROS
production, hence increased low-grade chronic inflamma-
tion (85). Similar biological effects may also be obtained
with protein S100B which has been shown to engage RAGE
in macrophage/microglia and endothelial cells; and so
depending of its extracellular concentration, to contribute
either to chronic inflammation via NFκB activation or to
anti-apoptotic effects and trophic protection in the course
of pathological conditions such as brain insult or diabetes
(86). Since AGEs have been shown to be involved in diabe-
tes mellitus (87) although all included patients had no dia-
betes type II at inclusion time, we systematically search for
a possible occurrence of diabetes type II in EHS and/or MCS
patients during the follow up of this study, but with the
exception of two cases, all patients were free from diabetes.
Predominantly found at host/environment interfaces
such as skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts (88)
and closely associated with blood vessels, mast cells play
a crucial sentinel role in host defense (89). Consequently,
more precise investigations remain to be done in EHS and/
or MCS patients to determine what mast cell-associated
tissue histamine release come from.
However, since brain mast cells have been shown to
be critical regulators of the pathogenesis of CNS diseases
including stroke, traumatic injury and neurodegenerative
diseases (83, 90) (see also Section “EHS/MCS as a possible
sentinel pathological disorder”) we systematically looked
for brain pathologic alterations in EHS and /or MCS patients.
Routine cerebral MRI and/or scanner as well as carotid
echography were critically considered to be normal in all
evaluable cases. We thus measured the BBF-related pulsatil-
ity in the patient hemispheres by using echodoppler of the
middle cerebral artery, and found that resistance index and
systolic and diastolic velocity indexes were associated with
cerebral hypoperfusion in one or the two hemisphere in
50.5% of the cases, whatever the patient group considered
(data not shown). More precisely, by using pulsed ultra-
sound computed tomosphygmography, we found that in
comparison to normal subjects, cerebral pulsatility in EHS
and /or MCS patients was decreased or even completely
abolished in one or the two temporal lobes (Figure2), sug-
gesting that BBF might be specifically decreased or abol-
ished in this brain area. We found that this abnormality,
although being not specific, was so frequently observed in
these patients that it may represent a typical brain alteration
similar to that found in Alzheimer’s disease and other neu-
rodegenerative diseases (see Section “EHS/MCS as a possi-
ble sentinel pathological disorder”). This finding therefore,
strongly suggests that brain could be the main target of
environmental EMFs and/or chemicals in EHS and/or MCS
patients, and that both cerebral hypoperfusion and subse-
quent histamine release whatever its neuronal or mast cell
origin could be main contributing factors to BBB disruption.
Furthermore, we found that cerebral blood pulsatility was
quasi-constantly decreased in the capsulothalamic area of
the temporal lobes, which includes the limbic system and
the thalamus, and so correspond to particularly vulnerable
areas to environmental stressors in the brain.
Confirming this capsulothalamic hypothesis, it has
been shown that experimentally-induced brain ischemia-
hypoxia can increase BBB permeability (91–94) and that
hippocampal pathology arising after chronic hypoper-
fusion can give rise to cognitive impairment and more
particularly memory deficit (95), a pathophysiological
mechanism that supports both the key role of cerebral
hypoperfusion/hypoxia in neurodegenerative diseases
such as Alzheimer’s disease (96) and our clinical obser-
vation of frequent cognitive defects in EHS and/or MCS
patients. How cerebral hypoperfusion/hypoxia may arise
from the neuro-inflammation process remains however,
unclear. Cerebral blood flow restriction and consequently
impaired oxygen supply may occur due to local oedema-
tous swelling, artery and/or capillary vasoconstriction
and/or increased BBB permeability induced by histamine
or other neuro-inflammation mediators (97, 98). While
hypoxia itself rather than ischemia can induce histamine
release (99). In addition, less efficient oxygen utiliza-
tion due to mitochondrial uncoupling may be associated
with impaired oxygen supply (100). As a consequence of
hypoxia and impairment of mitochondrial functioning,
reduced sensorial excitability, hence transitory loss of
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261
motor, sensory and cognitive function may occur during
EHS and/or MCS processes; but this loss of function may
progress to permanence and universality in the case of
chronic neurodegenerative diseases (97, 101).
Under the influence of environmental stressors, not
only mast cells (102, 103), but also microglia cells and
astrocytes (31, 104–106) play a crucial role in BBB disrup-
tion. Indeed the resident CNS tissue macrophages glial
cells such as microglia cells and astrocytes, and the resi-
dent CNS mast cells are probably the first cells to respond
to any neuro-inflammatory stimuli. In addition, it has
been shown that tachykinin peptides such as substance P,
can trigger microglial activation and subsequent release
of proinflammatory molecules, thereby contributing in
addition, to mast cells to the development of microglia-
mediated inflammation and BBB break down (107–109). It
is indeed well known that under the influence of neuro-
inflammatory stressors, such as EMF and particularly
during mobile device (GSM) prolonged exposure, micro-
glia cells can migrate to the site of injury, proliferate and
recruit astrocytes (110), what is commonly called gliosis–
a first cellular neuro-inflammation response which pro-
duces and releases NO°, ROS and inflammatory mediators
(105, 111). Moreover, astrocytes express histamine recep-
tors (112) which after activation can trigger release of
cytokines, which are themselves able to induce hista-
mine release through mast cell degranulation in positive
feedback loop (113). Finally, our finding of both cerebral
hypoperfusion and histamine release, supports previous
data according to which BBB disruption is obtained more
efficiently when these two factors are combined (91).
At a molecular level it has been evidenced that his-
tamine and other neuro-inflammation mediators induce
oxidative and nitrosative stress and so change the molecu-
lar composition and functional state of the BBB endothe-
lial tight junctions, hence increasing permeability of the
BBB (32, 104, 114, 115). As a consequence of this process
circulating inflammatory cells may thus transmigrate into
the CNS and so amplify the neuro-inflammation response
(116, 117). Note that such oxidative/nitrosative stress-
induced BBB disruption has not only been evidenced as a
consequence of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (118) but
also proved to occur under the influence of EMF exposure
at non thermal as well as thermal levels in several animal
studies (104, 119–122).
Melatonin suppression as a consequence of EMF expo-
sure has been experimentally evidenced both in animals
and humans (123–125). We found that 6-OHMS 24 h-urine
excretion was decreased in all the investigated cases,
whatever the EHS and/or MCS patient group considered.
Although this finding suggests that melatonin production
might have been decreased in these patients, EMF expo-
sure have been reported to be incapable of altering mel-
atonin synthesis and secretion (126). So an alternative
plausible explanation is that decrease in 6-OHMS excre-
tion may reflect decreased melatonin metabolic availabil-
ity, due to an increased uptake and utilization of melatonin
as a free radical scavenger (127, 128). Such reduction in
melatonin bioavailability may thus contribute to decrease
host defence mechanisms and may account for the fact
that patients submitted to prolonged and intensive EMF
exposure may be at risk of neurodegenerative diseases and
cancer (129), particularly of breast cancer (130) (see Section
“EHS/MCS as a possible sentinel pathological disorder”).
The development of the oxidative/nitrosative stress-
related autoimmune response may also contribute to
weaken the protective effect of the chaperone proteins
HSP70 and HSP27 (131) as has been evidenced for example
in stroke patients (132). Indeed the role of histamine in
modulating the immune system (133), the disturbance
of the immune system by EMFs (134) and the progres-
sive increase in oxidative and nitrosative stress as long as
chronic exposure to EMFs and/or chemicals persists may
explain why the physiological defence mechanisms of
these patients may finally collapse.
On the basis of our data we therefore, propose the fol-
lowing pathophysiological model of co-MCS/EHS exposure:
1) Under the influence of EMFs and/or chemicals a cer-
ebral hypoperfusion/hypoxia-related neuro- inflammation
may occur; 2) Due to the release of histamine and other
mediators BBB disruption and permeability increase may
be induced through resulting oxidative and/or nitrosative
stress; 3) Circulating inflammatory cells could then enter
the brain to initiate a vicious circle which may considerably
amplify the neuro-inflammation process; and finally 4)
Because of oxidative and nitrosative stress and subsequent
decreased melatonin bioavailability and autoimmune
response, physiological defence mechanisms are weak-
ened making EHS and/or MCS patients potentially at risk of
chronic neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
Part of this model has been proposed separately for
histamine release from mast cells in EHS (135) and for the
NO/NOOH- nitrosative stress cycle in MCS (136). Our pro-
posed EHS/MCS common pathogenic model is summa-
rized in Figure5.
Some insight into etiopathogeny
Certainly this study does not prove a causal link between
EMFs and EHS, or between chemicals and MCS, but it
does strengthen the evidence for such a possibility. To our
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
knowledge this is the first time that EHS and/or MCS have
been objectively characterized by the use of several differ-
ent types of biomarkers and in a large prospective series of
patients. This finding should avoid the frequent erroneous
interpretation that EHS and/or MCS patients are psycho-
somatic patients (11–14, 17, 137) and so strongly suggests
that EHS and MCS are genuine somatic pathological enti-
ties. Furthermore, our study revealed that with the excep-
tion of the two cases of Alzheimer’s disease which were
detected soon after inclusion, and several other cases of
neurodegenerative diseases which were diagnosed during
the follow-up (these cases have been considered as non-
evaluable cases) (see Section “EHS/MCS as a possible sen-
tinel pathological disorder”), all EHS and/or MCS patients
had no detectable psychiatric disease.
As previously mentioned we should however, note
that none of the biomarkers so far identified in our study
are specific of EHS and/or MCS. This is the case for his-
tamine which is known to be increased in the serum of
patients with typical migraine (138–140) and/or allergy
(30) and for HSP70 and HSP27 which has been shown to be
increased in several neurodegenerative diseases (141, 142);
and for protein S100B which acts normally as a physiologi-
cal intracellular regulator and extracellular signal and so
Environmental stressors
Resident microglia cells
Astrocytes and
mastocytes
Histamine
Oxidative and nitrative
stress
Transmigration of
circulating inflammatory
cells
Capsulothalamic neuroinflammation
Cerebral
hypoperfusion
/hypoxia
And other mediators
BBB disruption
Primary local
inflammatory
response
Inflammation
amplification
Mainly involving the limbic system and
the thalamus
Figure 5:Proposed hypothetic EHS/MCS common pathogenic
model based on EHS/MCS induced-neuroinflammation, cerebral
hypoperfusion, histamine release, oxidative/nitrosative stress and
BBB disruption.
has been shown to be expressed and released not only by
damaged CNS cells such as glial cells and neurons, but
also by different non CNS cells such as chondrocytes, adi-
pocytes, melanocytes, myofibers and other non CNS cells
(67, 86, 143). This explains why the detection of increased
levels of protein S100B in the serum of patients does not
mean they are necessarily EHS and/or MCS patients.
Other pathological disorders such as neurodegenerative
diseases, psychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder or
cancer (70, 144, 145) may be indeed also concerned by such
S100B protein levels. Likewise NTT is not only a general
marker of inflammation but also more particularly a
marker of atherosclerosis (146). Increased levels of NTT are
thus also non-specific. As already indicated (see Section
“Search for reliable disease biomarkers”) we therefore,
paid attention for excluding from our series all cases asso-
ciated with neuropsychiatric diseases and/or other serious
pathologies such as atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes in
order to eliminate any confounding factors.
Unlike the reported negative result of histamine
increase in MCS patients (147), we found increased hista-
mine levels globally in about 40% of MCS, EHS or MCS/
EHS patients. Since it has been shown that increased his-
tamine levels may in fact appear only when MCS patients
are submitted to environmental stressors such as volatile
organic compounds (VOC) (147), we thus wonder whether
the 60% of patients in our series who were not associated
with detectable increased histamine levels may in fact be
patients who were not exposed to environmental EMF and/
or chemical stressors just before histamine measurement.
Such interpretation may also involve the fact that in our
series we detected increased S100B protein levels in only
15% of the patients, since the increased levels of protein
S100B following brain injury are fleeting (39, 40, 66–68).
However, since EHS and MCS share similar biological
abnormalities and so may share a common pathophysi-
ological mechanism (see Section “Analysis of biochemical
markers”), these two so far clinically individualized enti-
ties may represent two etiopathogenic aspects of a unique
common pathological disorder. Arguments in support are
the following: 1. EHS and MCS are associated with a similar
symptomatic clinical picture; 2. Both entities share identi-
cal biological abnormalities including histamine release,
oxidative and nitrosative stress, and BBB opening; 3. Both
entities are characterized by a similar BBF decrease, and
this cerebral hypoperfusion take place in the majority of
cases predominantly in the same areas, i.e. mostly in the
temporal lobes, more precisely in the capsulothalamic
area; 4. either EHS or MCS occur first; 5. Using the same
therapeutic protocol, similar positive clinical results can
be obtained in both cases (data not shown).
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263
Because EHS and MCS were historically identified
clinically and distinguished from each other on the basis
of individual potentially environmental stressors, some
confusion has emerged. That is, unlike EHS and/or MCS
which are still considered as subjective entities because
of a lack of etiological substratum, many other interna-
tionally recognized diseases were medically characterized
before discovery of their etiopathological mechanisms. In
fact, the acknowledgment of EHS and MCS as resulting
from environmental causes oppose to powerful socioeco-
nomic interests and may explain why they are still not rec-
ognized as genuine pathological disorders by national or
international bodies and health institutions (137).
Moreover, it is well known that diseases are multifac-
torial and this may explain why current research failed to
attribute a causal origin to EHS and/or MCS. Case-control
epidemiologic studies and provocation studies, globally
have failed to demonstrate a causal link between EMF and
EHS (13, 137), as it may also be the case for chemicals and
MCS. These negative results however, do not exclude the
possibility of a causal link, as observational studies are dif-
ficult to conduct and objective inclusion/exclusion criteria
and endpoint evaluation criteria were not clearly defined
because of a lack of objective reliable biomarkers. Moreover,
if we accept the concept that EHS and/or MCS are part of a
common multifactorial disease, clearly those findings may
also have been biased by multiple related or unrelated con-
founding exposure factors and so may have been associated
with a reduction of signal-to-noise ratio, thereby obscuring
evidence of a possible causal link. Moreover, black box epi-
demiology and provocation studies focus on risk factors
without satisfactory understanding pathogenesis.
There are in fact several arguments for a causal role
of EMFs and/or multiple chemicals in the genesis of
the so far individualized EHS/MCS pathological disor-
der: 1. Self-reporting occurrence of clinical symptoms
depending on electromagnetic and/or chemical sources,
2. Efficient removing or lessening of clinical symptoms in
EHS patients and/or MCS patients in case of avoidance of
EMFs and/or chemicals, respectively (19); 3. Appearance
of biological abnormalities (positive detection of biomark-
ers) when patients are exposed to electromagnetic and/
or chemical sources, and regression or disappearance of
these biological abnormalities (normalization of biomark-
ers) when patients are withdrawn from electromagnetic
and/or chemical sources, a finding that confirm objec-
tively self-reporting patient symptoms (data not shown);
4. a possible common underlying pathophysiological
mechanism involving oxidative and/or nitrosative stress-
associated neuro-inflammation and BBB opening (see
Sections “Demographic panorama” and “Analysis of
biochemical markers”); and finally 5. Identical or similar
biological abnormalities detected in humans as compared
to those evidenced experimentally in animals submitted
to EMF and/or chemicals exposure. Although our data
account for clinical symptoms and biological abnor-
malities associated with an intolerance syndrome and
highlight its pathogenesis, they do not account for sus-
ceptibility and more particularly, hypersensitivity which
in addition, to intolerance both characterize EHS and
MCS. Virtually all diseases result from the interaction of
genes and the environment, hence the concept of genetic
susceptibility via constitutive genes which can further the
pathogenic role of environmental stressors (148). Theoret-
ically such susceptibility could explain why some subjects
are particularly suffering from EHS and/or MCS and not
others. A genetic predisposition including gene variants
of drug-metabolizing enzymes has been reported for MCS
(149–151) but this has not been confirmed (152, 153), sug-
gesting that to define MCS biologically, redox state and
cytokine profiling should be considered instead (153).
Our data reveal that women are more susceptible than
men to EHS or MCS and this susceptibility concerns both
EHS and MCS (see Section “Search for clinical diagno-
sis criteria”). This suggests some still undetermined sex-
related genetic susceptibility. To our knowledge there is no
reported study on genetic predisposition in EHS patients.
As magnetosomes are detectable in the human brain and
meninges (pia mater and dura mater) (154), and because
some EMF-related biological effects are achieved through
magneto-reception (155), we speculated that some type of
innate genetic predisposition to EHS might result from the
presence of a high number of magnetosomes in the brain
and meninges of susceptible patients. This may reveal to be
true particularly for non-thermal EMFs (156). Other hypoth-
esis may include acquired susceptibility through epigenetic
mechanisms related to EHS and/or MCS prolonged expo-
sure and some biological synergistic potential between
EMF exposure and low dose organic or inorganic chemical
contamination (157, 158). This may be particularly the case
for heavy metals which, as for EMF, have been shown to
release proinflammatory cytokines (159, 160).
It is worthy of note that metallic dental alloys are
associated with release of heavy metals such as mercury,
lead and cadmium into oral cavity (161, 162) and so may
contribute to EHS (158). It has been shown that EMFs
such as GSM frequencies emitted from mobile phone
may induce or accelerate the mercury vapor release from
dental amalgam (163) and consequently may contribute
not only to EHS but also to MCS (164).
An intriguing unknown pathophysiological mecha-
nism referred to as sensitivity-related illness (SRI) (4) or
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
as toxicant-induced loss of tolerance (TILT) (165) has been
put forward in order to account for the fact that patients
with EHS and/or MCS cannot tolerate weak intensity of
EMFs and/or low concentration of chemicals. We define
acquisition of such a hypersensitivity state with two cri-
teria: 1. Decrease in the tolerance threshold for EMFs or
chemicals; and 2. Extension of this decreased tolerance
threshold to the whole electromagnetic spectrum or to
multiple structurally unrelated chemicals, as disease pro-
gress. Although our data may suggest a role of the limbic
system and the thalamus, to our knowledge no clear
pathophysiological explanation of this intriguing brain-
related hypersensitivity condition has yet been given.
EHS/MCS as a possible sentinel
pathological disorder
The BBB protects the brain against potentially harmful
toxic chemicals which may have contaminated the blood
and thereby is currently regarded as a physiological struc-
ture that plays a crucial role in maintaining brain home-
ostasis (166–169). However, the BBB cannot protect the
brain against EMFs (170). This may explain why EMFs are
probably a major stressor associated with BBB disruption
and brain inflammation, and why oxidative stress and
more particularly oxidative/nitrosative stress-induced BBB
breakdown may be causally involved in neurodegenera-
tive diseases (171, 172), such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
(173–176), Parkinson’s disease (PD) (177), multiple sclerosis
(MS) (178), Huntington’s disease and amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (70) and even possibly psychiatric diseases such
as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder (179–182).
Since the first reports on EMF exposure-related BBB
disruption (119, 183) conflicting data have emerged (122)
leading to search for new tests for evidencing BBB dis-
ruption in EHS and/or MCS patients. BBB permeability
imaging (184) in addition, to search of peripheral bio-
markers could be helpful. Using protein S100B and NTT as
biomarkers our data tend to show that BBB opening could
be detected in 55%–60% of patients; but this result does
not mean the remaining cases could not have been associ-
ated with BBB opening we were unable to detect.
There is indeed compelling evidence that chronic
neuro-inflammation is a long lasting and potentially self-
perpetuating process including an initially long-standing
release of inflammatory mediators, leading to increased
oxidative and nitrosative stress. This process may thus
persist long after the initial environmental trigger and con-
sequently can contribute to neurodegeneration through
free radical attack on neural cells (185). This is particularly
the case in AD and PD for which toxicity of free radicals
have been demonstrated to contribute to protein and DNA
injury, inflammation, tissue damage and subsequent neu-
ronal degeneration and apoptosis (175, 176, 183, 185–187).
We have shown that patients with EHS and/or MCS
often have cerebral hypoperfusion and histamine release,
two factors that in addition, to the production of autoanti-
bodies have been evidenced to occur in AD (173, 174) and
PD (188–192); hence contributing to neuro-inflammation
and BBB dysfunction. Moreover, several studies have shown
that prolonged occupational exposures to low or extremely
low frequency EMFs are associated with AD (193–196) and
such a link has recently been confirmed in a meta-analysis
based on more than twenty epidemiological studies (197).
Although it has been shown in a single study that long
term high frequency EMF exposure could protect against
and even reverse cognitive impairment in mice bearing a so
called animal equivalent of AD (198), there is currently no
scientific reason to believe that in humans prolonged radi-
ofrequency EMF exposure as it is the case with excessive cell
phone and/or mobile phone use will be not also causally
related to AD occurrence (199). Moreover, it has been shown
that neurodegenerative diseases are in fact multifactorial
and that, as it has been hypothesized, ferrimagnetic metals
in food chain may contribute to initiate these neurodegen-
erative diseases under the influence of EMF exposure (200).
Typically AD starts with mild memory deficits, pri-
marily affecting short term memory and gradually pro-
gresses to loss of retrospective memory and dementia. An
important finding in our still ongoing study is that most of
EHS and/or MCS patients had decreased cognitive ability
manifested by loss of immediate memory and attention
and concentration deficiency (see Sections “Search for
reliable disease biomarkers” and “Analysis of biochemical
markers”). Since EHS and/or MCS pathogenesis appears to
be associated with brain pathophysiological abnormalities
similar to that occurring in neurodegenerative disorders,
a question is whether EHS and/or MCS are either a pre-
neurodegenerative state or an unrelated pathological dis-
order whose environmental causal origin might however,
be similar to that of neurodegenerative diseases. Neverthe-
less, whichever these two possible etiopathologic alterna-
tives, EHS and/or MCS might be considered as some type of
environmental sentinel pathological disorder.
It is worthy of note that in our series, in addition, to the
two cases of AD, which were diagnosed a few months after
inclusion, another case of AD and two cases of PD were dis-
covered in association with EHS during the patient follow
up. Moreover, at inclusion time we excluded two cases
of AD, two cases of PD, three cases of multiple sclerosis,
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Belpomme etal.: EHS and MCS as a unique pathological disorder
265
and one case of Huntington disease, which were found to
be associated with EHS. In addition, we excluded seven
EHS or EHS/MCS cases because they were associated with
previous or simultaneous carcinoma: breast carcinoma (3
cases), brain tumor (2 cases) and lymphoma (1 case). We
also excluded three MCS cases because they were associ-
ated with lymphoma (1 case) and thyroid endocrinopathy
(2 cases).
Certainly long term longitudinal analysis and replica-
tion of this ongoing prospective study will be necessary
to establish whether EHS and/or MCS could be related to
neurodegenerative disease and/or cancer, and thus may
announce or reflect occurrence of these pathologies.
The growing worldwide health
problem
Whatever the causal origin of EHS and/or MCS, there is
compelling evidence that EHS and/or MCS self-reporting
patients constitute an unsolved, large and growing health
problem worldwide.
As far as EHS is concerned, about 1%–10% of the
investigated population, e.g. 5% in Switzerland (13), 5%
in Ireland, 9% in Sweden, 9% in Germany and 11% in
England are presently estimated to be EHS self-reporting
persons (201). Given the seven billion persons worldwide
using cordless and/or mobile phone it is expected these
percentages may increase in the 50 next years. However,
because at the time these estimations were made there was
no objective criteria for identifying EHS (21), these data
require confirmation by more objective investigations.
By using the battery of biomarkers we have investi-
gated in this study it now seems possible to objectively
characterize and identify EHS and MCS. Although termed
“idiopathic”, IEI has been defined as abnormal responses
possibly triggered by exposure to organic chemicals and/
or metals. It is believed that in addition, to MCS several
pathological disorders such as fibromyalgia and chronic
fatigue syndrome, because they may share a similar envi-
ronment-related intolerance condition, could be part of
IEI. We have shown multiple lines of evidence that EHS
and MCS share a similar pathogenesis and so might be the
same pathological disorder whatever their putative causal
stressors. This strongly reinforces the concept that both
EHS and MCS must be part of the so called IEI syndrome.
Since the WHO publication in 1993 on EMFs (202), much
progress have been made in the identification and under-
standing of EMF effects on the organism, while EHS has still
not been clearly characterized and acknowledged by WHO.
Present research vainly focus on the causal role of
EMFs and chemicals as possible triggers of EHS and MCS,
respectively and not enough on the actually unmet health
care needs at a socioeconomic and public health setting
for persons with environmental sensitivity (203), as it is
particularly the case for EHS and/or MCS persons.
We therefore, strongly propose that whatever their
proofs for their causal origins, EHS and MCS should
clearly be added to the next version of the WHO interna-
tional classification of diseases (ICD) on the basis on their
clinical and pathological description; as has been the case
for many other diseases.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by a specific
grant from the ARTAC provided by patient’s donations and
non-profit grants from Foundation Lea Nature-France,
Foundation Pour une Terre Humaine-France and Founda-
tion Un Monde par Tous-France. The authors acknowledge
Dr. Natalio Awaida from “Labo XV-Paris” for the high quality
of the blood analysis, Tony Tweedale from R.I.S.K. (Rebut-
ting Industry Science with Knowledge) (Brussels, Belgium)
for his review and valuable comments on early draft. The
authors thank also Ms Meris Michaels (an ARTAC member
from Switzerland) for her specific financial support.
Conflicts of interest statement: All the authors declare no
financial conflict of interests.
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