Boyd Haley

Boyd E. Haley, PhD (b. September 22, 1940, Greensburg, Indiana), is a professor at the University of Kentucky, where he has been the chairman of the chemistry department since 1996. The basic research interest of his laboratory centers on biochemical and biomedical problems involving control at the molecular level, particularly in biological systems regulated by protein-nucleotide interactions where the bioenergetics involved are expressed through site-specific nucleotide binding of high affinity or through protein substrate phosphorylation. He has also investigated the effect of mercury on tissues and published on similarities between these and some biochemical changes reported in nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease and autism.

His laboratory's approach to the study of the general phenomenon of protein-nucleotide interactions is to synthesize novel nucleotide analogs that are photoactive or fluorescent, or both. The analogs are then used to study various interactions which regulate enzyme activity. Analogs used may be modifications of the commonly known nucleotides such as ATP, cAMP, GTP, dUTP, NAD+, UDP-Glc, etc. or probes of the more unusual nucleotides such as the proposed alarmones guanosine-3'-phosphate-5'phosphate (magic spot compounds) and diadenosine-P1, P4-tetraphosphate.

Haley is also co-founder and scientific advisor of Affinity Labeling Technologies, Inc., a biotechnology firm that synthesizes and markets nucleotide photo-affinity analogs for biomedical research.

Haley has testified to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other government agencies regarding mercury vapour from dental amalgams and on thimerosal-containing vaccines. Haley was one of the first researchers to propose that Thimerosal in infant vaccines was the most likely toxic agent involved in Gulf War syndrome and autistic spectrum disorders.

Research
Haley's University of Kentucky laboratory studies the differences between normal and diseased tissues as observed through changes in nucleotide binding proteins. Haley focuses on biochemical and biomedical problems involving control at the molecular level, particularly biological systems regulated by protein-nucleotide interactions where the bioenergetics involved are expressed through site-specific nucleotide binding of high affinity or through protein substrate phosphorylation.

His lab synthesizes novel nucleotide analogs that are photoactive or fluorescent, or both, which are then used to study protein-nucleotide interactions which regulate enzyme activity. These probes have proven useful in his research into the causes of Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis, which his lab is currently investigating.

Haley has also conducted studies that suggest low levels of mercury are capable of contributing to certain neurological diseases, and he has observed that exposure of lab rats to low level mercury vapor causes a great increase in rat brain mercury levels, along with a marked decrease in brain tubulin photolabeling, as has been found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

Using birth-hair analysis, Haley has produced evidence that individuals diagnosed with autism excrete less mercury. His hypothesis is that they form a distinct subset of the population with reduced excretion of mercury. Haley is not alone in concluding that an increase in the number of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal included in routine vaccination schedules might cause an increase in Autism. In most countries, use of thiomersal in pediatric vaccines has largely been discontinued in recent years, and on this hypothesis autism must now fall (see discussion in MMR vaccine). Thiomersal is metabolised to ethyl-mercury, which is very toxic in larger quantities.

Haley is investigating the effects of this preservative upon the central nervous tissue of lab rats. The only study on human subjects before the 1990s investigating the safety of thimerosal was conducted in 1930, 12 years before autism was defined.

Mercury and dental amalgams
Haley surmises that mercury released from dental amalgams could be a potential cause of autism and Alzheimer’s disease. His findings have not been reproduced and the United States Public Health Service and the American Dental Association reject these claims. Haley has drawn attention to the fact that dental amalgams contain approximately 50% mercury by weight and that a published NIH funded study found that the level of blood and urine mercury positively correlates with the number of amalgam fillings. Critics of this anti-amalgam view have pointed to a later study placed these figures in perspective by showing that the mercury released by a single amalgam filling to be only 0.03 micrograms/day "which is well below the calculated threshold-limiting value (TLV) of 82.29 micrograms/day [the equivalent of 2,743 amalgam fillings] considered dangerous for occupational exposure in the United States".

Haley says mercury inhaled as vapor easily penetrates the central nervous system where it is a potent chemical inhibitor of thiol-sensitive enzymes.

Gold salts
Haley speculates that gold salts may induce a wide range of improvements in overall health, in a manner similar to that of chelation, which is often used by alternative medicine practitioners for patients afflicted by heavy metal, for instance Mercury, poisoning. Chelation therapy is increasingly used to treat individuals diagnosed with autism. Gold salts "can reverse the binding" of mercury to molecules, according to Haley, who adds, "This does lend support to the possible removal of mercury from biological proteins in individuals treated with gold salts."

Gold, he thinks, might pull mercury "off the enzyme it's inhibiting and reactivate that enzyme."

"You follow your nose in research, and when I saw that I thought, yes, this is a possibility," said Haley. "Nothing has a higher affinity for mercury than elemental gold. They form bonds that are very tight," says Haley, who also notes that devices designed to detect and filter out mercury routinely use gold. Haley also offers a word of caution, "The last thing the autism associations need is a bad experience on treating an autistic child. Extreme caution should be used with gold salts; just because the gold or thiolmalate (part of the gold salts) binds mercury in a test tube doesn't mean the gold salts will not be harmful to a young infant. "Please note that I am not recommending using gold salts to treat autistics, but it would certainly be worth a project if carefully monitored by a physician in a good clinic," Haley said.

Further endeavors
Dr. Haley is a member of the Autism Think Tank of the Autism Association, and has presented numerous lectures on the subject of mercury toxicity and neurological diseases at international conferences in a dozen different countries.