"Investigators at the Institute believe the discovery, announced today
at the 4th International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in
Boston, could be a major step toward developing a routine blood test
that would allow autism to be detected in newborns and treatment or
even prevention to be initiated early in life."

Are the researchers really saying this? This suggests that there is an
innate or "genetic" defect. We need to see the study to determine if
this is more media spin



Contact: Preeti Singh or Ellen Wilson
301-652-1558
Coimbra Sirica
631-757-4027
631-220-8775 (mobile)

Karen Finney
916-734-9064
916-505-2601 (mobile)

UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute

Scientists report strong evidence of immune and protein alterations
in blood samples of children with autism, raising hope for an early
diagnostic blood test

BOSTON, Mass. (May 5, 2005) - Offering a new and exciting direction
in the effort to develop a diagnostic test for autism in infancy,
scientists from the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute presented new
evidence today indicating that components of the immune system and
proteins and metabolites found in the blood of children with autism
differ substantially from those found in typically developing
children.
Investigators at the Institute believe the discovery, announced today
at the 4th International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in
Boston, could be a major step toward developing a routine blood test
that would allow autism to be detected in newborns and treatment or
even prevention to be initiated early in life.

Over the last two decades parents, educators, scientists and
pediatricians have been alarmed by a dramatic and baffling rise in
the prevalence of autism, which now affects as many as 1 in every 166
children. But diagnosing autism, a brain disorder that leaves
children in apparent isolation from their families and communities,
is currently accomplished through a series of behavioral observations
that are not reliable until a child is between 2 and 3-years-old.

"Finding a sensitive and accurate biological marker for autism that
can be revealed by a simple blood test would have enormous
implications for diagnosing, treating and understanding more about
the underlying causes of autism," 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. "Not being able to detect autism
until a child is close to 3-years-old eliminates a valuable window of
treatment opportunity during the first few years of life when the
brain is undergoing tremendous development."

Amaral along with pediatric neuropsychologist Blythe Corbett and
other M.I.N.D. Institute colleagues took blood samples from 70
children with autism who were between 4 and 6 years old and from 35
children of the same age who didn't have the disorder. The samples
were then analyzed by a biotech company, SurroMed, LLC, Menlo Park,
Calif., which has developed technology that can identify differences
in the number and types of immune cells, proteins, peptides and
metabolites in small amounts of blood.

The study has generated an enormous amount of data and M.I.N.D.
Institute researchers say it will take months before all of the
information has been fully evaluated. But initial findings clearly
demonstrate differences in the immune system, as well as proteins and
other metabolites in children with autism:


The antibody producing B cells are increased by 20 percent in the
autism group
Natural killer cells are increased by 40 percent
More than 100 proteins demonstrated significant differential
expression between the autism and typically developing groups
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 differences we can detect in blood samples that will be
predictive of the disorder, though we are still some years away from
having an actual diagnostic blood test for autism. Scientists have
long suspected there were distinct biological components to autism
but the technology needed to reveal them has only recently become
available."

Future research studies need to be done to confirm the findings in a
larger group and with younger children. For example, researchers
might take blood samples from newborns and then see if the results
predicting autism are later confirmed by a behavioral diagnosis.
Other studies would also use bioinformatics approaches to narrow down
the number of proteins or metabolites that would need to be assayed
to show the strongest link to autism.

"Discovering an early diagnostic test is an important focus of
research," said Amaral. "There is a growing view among experts that
not all children with autism are 'doomed to autism' at birth. It may
be that some children have a vulnerability-such as a genetic
abnormality-and that something they encounter after being born,
perhaps in their environment, triggers the disorder. Studying the
biological signs of autism could lead to new ways to prevent the
disorder from ever occurring. And even if it can't be prevented,
intervening early in life-ideally shortly after birth-could greatly
improve the lifetime outlook for children with autism, particularly
those who now respond poorly to therapy initiated when they are three
or older."

The UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental
Disorders) Institute is a unique collaborative center for research
into the causes and treatments of autism, bringing together parents,
scientists, clinicians and educators. For further information, go to
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute


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Thank you all for the comments on aluminum. As I have said for many
years, there are plenty of bad actors in that vile!

I hope you find the latest M.I.N.D. Institute findings on autism and
the immune system interesting and important. Although we all know as
parents and advocates that autism is an immune mediated disease, it is
important to get that well established in mainstream science and
medicine. Moving the paradigm away from chasing the illusive autism
gene and silly psychological studies, i.e., scientific masturbation,
is of paramount importance.

I have no doubt that this latest study from M.I.N.D. will ignite more
interest and research into autism and the immune system. Lots more on
this and other related issues to come from M.I.N.D. soon. rick