The lone star tick isn’t the only source of alpha-gal, a sugar linked to alpha-gal syndrome, also known as red meat allergy. Alpha-gal also is used in the manufacture of foods, personal care products, medical devices and drugs — including vaccines.
Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a three-part series on red meat allergy, a serious, lifestyle-limiting disorder that causes individuals to experience mild-to-life-threatening allergic symptoms several hours after eating red meat. Also known as “alpha-gal syndrome,” meat allergy has no cure — the only “treatment” is to avoid certain meats and animal products. Read part 1 of the series here.
Recent news reports on the recent rapid spread of alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), or red meat allergy, blamed the lone star tick. That’s because the tick’s saliva contains trace quantities of a sugar, alpha-gal, a known human irritant that many researchers and clinicians believe induces the dangerous allergic responses that are the hallmark of AGS.
But the lone star tick isn’t the only source of alpha-gal. One of many sugars that attach to meat proteins and other animal-derived products, alpha-gal also is used in the manufacture of foods, personal care products, medical devices and drugs — including vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides an informative, but incomplete list of vaccine ingredients containing alpha-gal, whose chemical name is galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose.
The CDC’s list includes bovine serum albumin, a protein produced from cow’s blood; gelatin, made from the bones and connective tissues of cows and pigs; magnesium stearate from numerous animal sources including red-meat animals; and glycerin, sourced from both animals and plants.
These substances, known as excipients, are added to many types of drug formulations to protect the more active ingredients from chemical and environmental degradation.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorizes glycerin, stearate and gelatin as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), but that designation applies only to foods, not to injected substances.
Serum albumin, the most abundant protein in mammalian blood, is not on the GRAS list but is consumed by ingesting beef and dairy products. Albumin is also used in many drugs and in beauty and personal care products.
Bovine serum albumin is itself an allergic irritant that can, along with other milk proteins, induce cow’s milk protein allergy in susceptible individuals. This is not the same as lactose intolerance, which results from the inability to break down milk sugars.
Read More: What’s Behind the Rapid Spread of Red Meat Allergy — Ticks? Vaccines? Something Else?
