AUTISM RESEARCH UNCOVERS ANTIBODY THAT COULD GIVE CLUES TO THE CONDITION'S ORIGIN

 


 Autism disorders have baffled scientists for decades.  But the staggering number of new cases has prompted massive research on the disorder.  For years outside agents have been blamed for the condition, from influenza, to vaccines, to pesticides for household uses. 

But the new study of 246 mothers of children who are suffering from the disease, who were then compared to an additional 149 women who had healthy children, found that of the former group almost 25% had a different combinations of antibodies.

These maternal antibodies are significant because they target proteins that affect the foetus' development. 

The antibodies, in general, are immune system cells that are supposed to destroy organisms or substances that are inimical or dangerous to our bodies. However, they sometime turn on the person, and in some cases on the foetus carried by the mother.  

As the foetus develops, some of these defective immune cells, or antibodies, can pass through the placental wall, and they can target those protein that are specifically involved in the development of the child's brain. 

The discovery could give doctors a testing tool and also a treatment to shut down those antibodies before they can do harm. 

The only flaw of the study was that the samples were taken of the mother's antibodies post partum, which of course will prompt further studies in the gestational periods.  

What is very interesting is that the antibodies taken from the mothers that had ASD children, that were then inoculated in female monkeys, produced baby monkeys with similar behavioral deficiencies as are observed in children with ASD. 

Male offsprings of the baby monkeys, furthermore, had enlarged frontal lobes, which are consistent with the cranial findings of autistic human offsprings.

Source : France 24/ 7.9.13

 

 

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