Richard Deth
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Richard Carlton Deth
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| image = Professor Richard Deth.JPG
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|birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1945|3|23}}
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| fields = Pharmacology
| workplaces = Nova Southeastern University
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| alma_mater = {{hlist|SUNY Buffalo| University of Miami}}
| thesis_title = The relative contribution of Ca++ influx and intracellular Ca++ release in the drug induced contraction of the rabbit aorta
| thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1675020
| thesis_year = 1975
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| known_for = Supporting a link between the use of thiomersal in vaccines to autism
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Richard Carlton Deth is an American neuropharmacologist, a former{{cite web |last1=Stanley |first1=Karen |title=Richard Deth Retires in 2014 |url=https://bouve.northeastern.edu/pharmacy/news/richard-deth-retires/ |website=School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences |publisher=Northeastern University |date=1 July 2014 |access-date=22 January 2022 |archive-date=13 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213080121/https://bouve.northeastern.edu/pharmacy/news/richard-deth-retires/ |url-status=dead }} professor of pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and is on the scientific advisory board of the National Autism Association. Deth has published scientific studies on the role of D4 dopamine receptors in psychiatric disorders, as well as the book, Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection. He has also become a prominent voice in the controversies in autism and thiomersal and vaccines, due to his hypothesis that certain children are more at risk than others because they lack the normal ability to excrete neurotoxic metals.
Education
Deth attended State University of New York at Buffalo, where he graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in pharmacy. In 1975, Deth obtained his PhD from the University of Miami with a thesis entitled "The relative contribution of Ca++ influx and intracellular Ca++ release in the drug induced contraction of the rabbit aorta."{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1675020|title=The relative contribution of Ca++ influx and intracellular Ca++ release in the drug induced contraction of the rabbit aorta|oclc=1675020 }}{{cite web|url=http://nuweb4.neu.edu/bouve-faculty/resumes/83.pdf|title=Richard Carlton Deth, PhD|publisher=Northeastern University, Boston|accessdate=22 October 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060606/http://nuweb4.neu.edu/bouve-faculty/resumes/83.pdf|archivedate=23 October 2013}}
Research focus
The primary realm of research conducted by Deth involves the role of D4 dopamine receptors in schizophrenia and attention. He has focused on understanding the molecular basis of transmembrane signaling by G protein-coupled receptors, the study of their structure using three-dimensional molecular graphics, and modeling how the binding of various drugs causes a shift in their molecular form.{{cite journal | last1=Zhu | first1=Qingbing | last2=Qi | first2=Lai-Jun | last3=Shi | first3=Anguo | last4=Abou-Samra | first4=Abdul | last5=Deth | first5=Richard C. | title=Protein Kinase C Regulates α<sub>2A/D</sub>-Adrenoceptor Constitutive Activity | journal=Pharmacology | publisher=S. Karger AG | volume=71 | issue=2 | year=2004 | issn=0031-7012 | doi=10.1159/000076944 | pages=80–90| pmid=15118347 }}
Deth has characterized the conformation-dependent participation of D4 dopamine receptors in the process of phospholipid methylation, and found that different states of methylation yield varying degrees of spontaneous activity of G protein coupling. He has theorized that these processes are involved in the neural mechanisms of attention.{{cite book | last=Deth | first=R.C. | title=Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection | publisher=Springer US | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-4615-0335-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUraBwAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-07-02 | page=}} Deth has found that insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and dopamine both stimulated folate-dependent methylation pathways in neuronal cells, while compounds like ethanol, the vaccine preservative thimerosal, and metals (like mercury, which is contained in thimerosal, and lead) inhibited these same biochemical pathways at low concentrations resembling those found following vaccination or other sources of exposure. An enzyme mediating methylation, methionine synthase, uses an active form of vitamin B12 to complete its chemical function. Thimerosal interferes with the conversion of dietary forms of B12 into the active form and so impedes DNA methylation and disrupts mercury detoxification and some normal gene actions.{{cite journal | last1=Waly | first1=M | last2=Olteanu | first2=H | last3=Banerjee | first3=R | last4=Choi | first4=S-W | last5=Mason | first5=J B | last6=Parker | first6=B S | last7=Sukumar | first7=S | last8=Shim | first8=S | last9=Sharma | first9=A | last10=Benzecry | first10=J M | last11=Power-Charnitsky | first11=V-A | last12=Deth | first12=R C | title=Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and thimerosal | journal=Molecular Psychiatry | publisher=Springer | volume=9 | issue=4 | date=2004-01-27 | issn=1359-4184 | doi=10.1038/sj.mp.4001476 | pages=358–370| pmid=14745455 }}
Based on this research, Deth has theorized that thimerosal in vaccines could give rise to autism in a subset of children who are genetically vulnerable; he has also contended that the body's response to thimerosal is a hormetic one, in which low-level exposure to the substance causes a beneficial effect.{{cite journal | last1=Price | first1=Cristofer S. | last2=Thompson | first2=William W. | last3=Goodson | first3=Barbara | last4=Weintraub | first4=Eric S. | last5=Croen | first5=Lisa A. | last6=Hinrichsen | first6=Virginia L. | last7=Marcy | first7=Michael | last8=Robertson | first8=Anne | last9=Eriksen | first9=Eileen | last10=Lewis | first10=Edwin | last11=Bernal | first11=Pilar | last12=Shay | first12=David | last13=Davis | first13=Robert L. | last14=DeStefano | first14=Frank | title=Prenatal and Infant Exposure to Thimerosal From Vaccines and Immunoglobulins and Risk of Autism | journal=Pediatrics | volume=126 | issue=4 | date=2010-10-01 | issn=0031-4005 | doi=10.1542/peds.2010-0309 | pages=656–664| pmid=20837594 }} He played an active role in the initial confusion about the suggested relationship thiomersal and vaccines, testifying twice to Congress about his views. Deth's hypothesis is, however, contradicted by much of the current literature about the causes of autism, which indicates that the levels of thimerosal found in vaccines and other sources cannot be directly implicated as a cause.{{cite journal | last1=Doja | first1=Asif | last2=Roberts | first2=Wendy | title=Immunizations and Autism: A Review of the Literature | journal=Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=33 | issue=4 | year=2006 | issn=0317-1671 | doi=10.1017/s031716710000528x | pages=341–346| pmid=17168158 }}{{cite journal | last=Taylor | first=B. | title=Vaccines and the changing epidemiology of autism | journal=Child: Care, Health and Development | publisher=Wiley | volume=32 | issue=5 | date=2006-08-09 | issn=0305-1862 | doi=10.1111/j.1365-2214.2006.00655.x | pages=511–519| pmid=16919130 }} This aspect of his research attracted such controversy that a dean at Northeastern University once wrote a letter to Deth telling him to stop.{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/01/autisms_unblessed_scientists/|title=Autism's 'unblessed' scientists|work=Boston.com|date=1 June 2010|accessdate=4 March 2014|author=Weiss, Joanna}}
See also
References
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External links
- {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210125813/http://www.pharmsci.neu.edu/faculty/deth.html|date=February 10, 2007|title=Richard Deth (homepage), Northeastern University}}
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Category:American neuroscientists
Category:American pharmacologists
Category:Northeastern University faculty
Category:Thiomersal and vaccines