Detection of Plasma Autoantibodies to Brain Tissue in Young Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders

Researchers at the MIND Institute published studies in the past few years correlating antibodies to brain tissue and autism. The first study of this sort (that I recall) studied whether the mother had antibodies to fetal brain tissue: Autism: maternally derived antibodies specific for fetal brain proteins. Other studies have looked at autoantibodies within the plasma of the autistics themselves: Detection of autoantibodies to neural cells of the cerebellum in the plasma of subjects with autism spectrum disorders .

The idea is fairly simple. If the mother or the autistic has antibodies against brain tissue, this might lead to an increased risk of autism.

There are even patent applications in for use of these methods to For example, a 2011 patent application US20110038872A1: METHODS OF DIAGNOSING AND TREATING AUTISM

Determining a risk of an offspring for developing an autism spectrum disorder comprises identifying in a biological sample from the mother of the offspring in the presence of maternal antibodies that bind to the biomarkers

This past week, another paper from the MIND group came out:

In this study they looked for autoantibodies and compared autistics and non-autistics. They found no differences between the groups in frequency of autoantibodies.

Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by impaired language and social skills, often with restricted interests and stereotyped behaviors. A previous investigation of blood plasma from children with ASDs (mean age = 5½ years) demonstrated that 21% of samples contained autoantibodies that reacted intensely with GABAergic Golgi neurons of the cerebellum while no samples from non-sibling, typically developing children showed similar staining (Wills et al., 2009). In order to characterize the clinical features of children positive for these autoantibodies, we analyzed plasma samples from children enrolled in the Autism Phenome Project, a multidisciplinary project aimed at identifying subtypes of ASD. Plasma from male and female children (mean age = 3.2 years) was analyzed immunohistochemically for the presence of autoantibodies using histological sections of macaque monkey brain. Immunoreactivity to cerebellar Golgi neurons and other presumed interneurons was observed for some samples but there was no difference in the rate of occurrence of these autoantibodies between children with ASD and their typically developing peers. Staining of neurons, punctate profiles in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus, and neuronal nuclei were also observed. Taken together, 42% of controls and subjects with ASD demonstrated immunoreactivity to some neural element. Interestingly, children whose plasma reacted to brain tissue had scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) that indicated increased behavioral and emotional problems. Children whose plasma was immunoreactive with neuronal cell bodies scored higher on multiple CBCL scales. These studies indicate that additional research into the genesis and prevalence of brain-directed autoantibodies is warranted.

” Immunoreactivity to cerebellar Golgi neurons and other presumed interneurons was observed for some samples but there was no difference in the rate of occurrence of these autoantibodies between children with ASD and their typically developing peers.”

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