Thirteen years into my journey I feel both frustrated and encouraged as I witness scientists prove what so many families, including ours, already knew. Encouraged, well I don't have to tell anyone that!
Frustrated, because as time goes by my son gets older and perhaps it will be too late for him to benefit.
*****
Mother’s Antibodies May Explain a Quarter of Autism Cases
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/mothers-antibodies-may-explain-a-quarter-of-autism-cases/#ixzz2bJq1QWkFA
test for six antibodies in an expectant mom’s blood may predict with more than
99% certainty which children are at highest risk of developing autism.
In
a study published in Translational
Psychiatry, researchers report that 23% of all cases of autism may result
from the presence of maternal antibodies that interfere with fetal brain development
during pregnancy. The work builds on a 2008 study from the same scientists that
first described the group of antibodies in mothers-to-be. The latest paper
describes the specific antibodies and provides more detail on what they do.
“It’s
very exciting,” says Alycia Halladay, Senior Director of Environmental and
Clinical Sciences for Autism Speaks, who was not associated with the research.
The
research is already leading to what could be the first biological test for
autism; the antibodies are found almost exclusively in mothers of autistic
children, and not in children with other types of disorders or in mothers of
non-autistic children. Only 1% of mothers whose children were not affected by
autism had the antibodies in their blood, compared to 23% of mothers of
autistic children. Judith Van de Water, an immunologist and professor of
internal medicine at the University of California Davis MIND Institute and the study’s
lead author, has consulted for a company, Pediatric Bioscience, that is
developing a commercial version of the test, but the research was not funded by
that organization and was supported primarily by the National Institute on
Environmental Health Sciences.
“We
haven’t found any [mothers] who have these antibodies and don’t have children
with some sort of developmental disability issue,” says Van de Water. “We feel
this really identifies a subtype of autism.”
The
antibodies belong to a class of compounds called autoantibodies, which are
immune cells that the body makes to target — often mistakenly — its own cells.
Scientists do not know why or when the mothers produce these antibodies, which
appear to monkey with normal nerve development in the fetal brain by
interfering with their growth, migration and genetic replication. It is
possible that infections during pregnancy — a known risk factor for autism —can
prompt the immune system to produce them. Exposure to toxic chemicals can also
cause immune defenders to mistake healthy cells for invaders, Van de Water
notes.
The
study involved 246 autistic children and their mothers, as well as 149
typically developing children. Of the mothers tested, all but one with the
antibodies had an autistic child— and the child of the remaining mother had
ADHD, a condition that often occurs along with autism. That suggests that
a positive test almost certainly indicates a developmental disability.
However, since 77% of the mothers of autistic children did not have these
antibodies, Van de Water says, a negative test would not rule out all risk of
autism.
And
so far, the presence of the antibodies do not seem to be associated with any
particular form of autism. “Certain behaviors seem to be associated with this,
including stereotyped repetitive behavior like hand-flapping and lower levels
of expressive language,” says Van de Water, but no unique behavioral signature
has been found so far. The children also did not seem to score differently on
cognitive tests than other youngsters with autism.
The
study did not include any children with Asperger’s syndrome, a condition that
generally involves less severe developmental disability, because most of the
study participants were between ages two and five, which is often before
Asperger’s is identified.
In
another paper published simultaneously in the same journal, other UC Davis
researchers injected the antibodies that were purified from mothers of
autistic children into pregnant monkeys, and found that the offspring showed
abnormal social behavior. That further confirms that the antibodies play some
role in early brain development, and supports the idea that these proteins
deserve further study for their role in autism.
Halladay
cautions that the test is not yet close to being approved for widespread use,
and that the research on these antibodies is still in its infancy. “I think
lots more work needs to be done,” she says, “The jury is still out and we don’t
really know yet if it can really be used as biomarker.”
If
and when the test is available, Van de Water says that it probably won’t be
used in pregnant women first. Instead, it could become a way to test women
before they become pregnant to screen them for this risk of autism. Some women
in the study who were informed of their antibody status have already decided
against having further children.
Parents
may be spared those difficult decisions, however, if medications become
available to block these antibodies from crossing the placenta and affecting
the developing child. And even if mothers who test positive decide to continue
with their pregnancy, knowing their status could help them to take advantage of
therapies that can reduce the disability their children experience from the
condition.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/mothers-antibodies-may-explain-a-quarter-of-autism-cases/#ixzz2bJpqkFBB
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/mothers-antibodies-may-explain-a-quarter-of-autism-cases/#ixzz2bJpqkFBB
After reading some nice stuff in your article I really feel speechless, because it is quit pretty article. Beside this it is also a long lasting article. Thanks for giving me such type of useful information.. tag antibody
ReplyDelete