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Autism: Study shows differences in blood that may lead to early blood test



 
 
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Old May 6th 05, 06:55 PM
Jeff
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Default Autism: Study shows differences in blood that may lead to early blood test

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroo...htmlSCIENTISTS REPORT STRONG EVIDENCE OF IMMUNE AND PROTEIN ALTERATIONS IN BLOODSAMPLES OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM, RAISING HOPE FOR AN EARLY DIAGNOSTIC BLOODTESTMay 5, 2005(BOSTON, Mass.) - Offering a new and exciting direction in the effort todevelop a diagnostic test for autism in infancy, scientists from the UCDavis M.I.N.D. Institute presented new evidence today indicating thatcomponents of the immune system and proteins and metabolites found in theblood of children with autism differ substantially from those found intypically developing children.Investigators at the Institute believe the discovery, announced today at the4th International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in Boston, could be amajor step toward developing a routine blood test that would allow autism tobe detected in newborns and treatment or even prevention to be initiatedearly in life.Over the last two decades parents, educators, scientists and pediatricianshave been alarmed by a dramatic and baffling rise in the prevalence ofautism, which now affects as many as 1 in every 166 children. But diagnosingautism, a brain disorder that leaves children in apparent isolation fromtheir families and communities, is currently accomplished through a seriesof behavioral observations that are not reliable until a child is between 2and 3-years-old."Finding a sensitive and accurate biological marker for autism that can berevealed by a simple blood test would have enormous implications fordiagnosing, treating and understanding more about the underlying causes ofautism," said David G. Amaral, research director at the UC Davis M.I.N.D.Institute and one of the co-authors of the paper presented at IMFAR. "Notbeing able to detect autism until a child is close to 3-years-old eliminatesa valuable window of treatment opportunity during the first few years oflife when the brain is undergoing tremendous development."Amaral along with pediatric neuropsychologist Blythe Corbett and otherM.I.N.D. Institute colleagues took blood samples from 70 children withautism who were between 4 and 6 years old and from 35 children of the sameage who didn't have the disorder. The samples were then analyzed by abiotech company, SurroMed, LLC, Menlo Park, Calif., which has developedtechnology that can identify differences in the number and types of immunecells, proteins, peptides and metabolites in small amounts of blood.SurroMed was recently acquired by PPD, Inc., and its biomarker services havebeen integrated into PPD's discovery and development services and productsprovided to biopharmaceutical companies.The study has generated an enormous amount of data and M.I.N.D. Instituteresearchers say it will take months before all of the information has beenfully evaluated. But initial findings clearly demonstrate differences in theimmune system, as well as proteins and other metabolites in children withautism: a.. The antibody producing B cells are increased by 20 percent in theautism group a.. Natural killer cells are increased by 40 percent a.. More than 100 proteins demonstrated significant differentialexpression between the autism and typically developing groups a.. Other small molecules (metabolites) also show many differences"This is an important pilot experiment, a proof of principle," said Amaral."From these results we think it is highly likely that there are differenceswe can detect in blood samples that will be predictive of the disorder,though we are still some years away from having an actual diagnostic bloodtest for autism. Scientists have long suspected there were distinctbiological components to autism but the technology needed to reveal them hasonly recently become available."Future research studies need to be done to confirm the findings in a largergroup and with younger children. For example, researchers might take bloodsamples from newborns and then see if the results predicting autism arelater confirmed by a behavioral diagnosis. Other studies would also usebioinformatics approaches to narrow down the number of proteins ormetabolites that would need to be assayed to show the strongest link toautism."Discovering an early diagnostic test is an important focus of research,"said Amaral. "There is a growing view among experts that not all childrenwith autism are 'doomed to autism' at birth. It may be that some childrenhave a vulnerability-such as a genetic abnormality-and that something theyencounter after being born, perhaps in their environment, triggers thedisorder. Studying the biological signs of autism could lead to new ways toprevent the disorder from ever occurring. And even if it can't be prevented,intervening early in life-ideally shortly after birth-could greatly improvethe lifetime outlook for children with autism, particularly those who nowrespond poorly to therapy initiated when they are three or older."The UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of NeurodevelopmentalDisorders) Institute is a unique collaborative center for research into thecauses and treatments of autism, bringing together parents, scientists,clinicians and educators. For further information, go tohttp://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute.

 




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