Autism

Contents

• Environment, Genetics and Autism
• Gastrointestinal Disease and Autism
• Metals, Environmental Toxins, and Autism
• Acetaminophen and Autism
• Methylation and Autism
• Neuroimmune Disorders and Autism
• Specific Vaccines and Vaccines in General
• Other Autism-related Resources

Environment, Genetics and Autism

• A Positive Association found between Autism Prevalence and Childhood Vaccination uptake across the U.S. Population A 1% increase in vaccination was associated with an additional 680 children having AUT [autism] or SLI [speech or language impairment].
• Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Factors Among Twin Pairs With Autism To our knowledge, this study [published Nov 2011] is the largest population-based twin study of autism that used contemporary standards for the diagnosis of autism… .The results suggest that environmental factors common to twins explain about 55% of the liability to autism. Although genetic factors also play an important role, they are of substantially lower magnitude than estimates from prior twin studies of autism.
• How environmental and genetic factors combine to cause autism: A redox/methylation hypothesis
• Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes—A review

Gastrointestinal Disease and Autism

• ‘Controversial Doctor and Autism Media Channel Director proven right – MMR Vaccine Causes Autism & Inflammatory Bowel Disease.’  Two landmark events – a government concession in the US Vaccine Court, and a groundbreaking scientific paper – confirm that physician, scientist, and Autism Media Channel [AMC] Director, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, and the parents were right all along.
• Impaired Carbohydrate Digestion and Transport and Mucosal Dysbiosis in the Intestines of Children with Autism and Gastrointestinal Disturbances
• Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who exhibit chronic gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and marked fluctuation of behavioral symptoms exhibit distinct innate immune abnormalities and transcriptional profiles of peripheral blood (PB) monocytes
• Panenteric IBD-Like Disease in a Patient with Regressive Autism Shown for the First Time by the Wireless Capsule Enteroscopy: Another Piece in the Jigsaw of this Gut-Brain Syndrome?
• Clinical Presentation and Histologic Findings at Ileocolonoscopy in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Chronic Gastrointestinal Symptoms
• Gastrointestinal Pathology in Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Venezuelan Experience the GI evaluation is an essential part of the investigation protocol in ASD. In our experience, treating GI disease is consistently associated with improved cognitive functions, decreased self-aggressiveness, better attention, improved eye contact, and decreased sleep disorders.
• Autistic enterocolitis: Fact or fiction?
• Autistic Enterocolitis: Confirmation of a New Inflammatory Bowel Disease in An Italian Cohort of Patients These preliminary data are strongly consistent with previous descriptions of autistic enterocolitis and supported a not-coincidental occurrence.
• Detection and sequencing of measles virus from peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and autism. The sequences obtained from the patients with ulcerative colitis and children with autism were consistent with being vaccine strains.
• Persistent measles virus infection of the intestine: confirmation by immunogold electron microscopy.

Metals, Environmental Toxins, and Autism

• A comparative evaluation of the effects of MMR immunization and mercury doses from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines on the population prevalence of autism The results of this study agree with a number of previously published studies. These studies have shown that there is biological plausibility and epidemiological evidence showing a direct relationship between increasing doses of mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, and measles-containing vaccines and serious neurological disorders.
• A two-phase study evaluating the relationship between Thimerosal-containing childhood vaccine administration and the risk for an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in the United States Download the PDF to read the conclusion that the present study provides new epidemiological evidence supporting an association between increasing organic-Hg exposure from Thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines and the subsequent risk of an ASD diagnosis.
• Empirical Data Confirm Autism Symptoms Related to Aluminum and Acetominophen Exposure
• Toxicological Status of Children with Autism vs. Neurotypical Children and the Association with Autism Severity Overall, children with autism have higher average levels of several toxic metals, and levels of several toxic metals are strongly associated with variations in the severity of autism for all three of the autism severity scales investigated.
• Autism Spectrum Disorders and Aluminum Vaccine Adjuvants research data suggests that vaccines containing Al may be a contributing etiological factor in the increasing incidence of autism.
• Sorting out the spinning of autism: heavy metals and the question of incidence The question about toxic exposure and autism is open, with the weight of evidence favoring a connection that is not well understood.
• Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? The application of the Hill’s criteria to these data indicates that the correlation between Al in vaccines and ASD may be causal.
• Aluminium in brain tissue in autism The pre-eminence of intracellular aluminium associated with non-neuronal cells was a standout observation in autism brain tissue and may offer clues as to both the origin of the brain aluminium as well as a putative role in autism spectrum disorder.
• A case series of children with apparent mercury toxic encephalopathies manifesting with clinical symptoms of regressive autistic disorders
• Mercury in first-cut baby hair of children with autism versus typically-developing children The amount of Hg in the baby hair of children with autism showed a significant correlation with the number of maternal dental amalgams. The lower level of Hg in the baby hair of children with autism indicates an altered metabolism of Hg, and may be due toa decreased ability to excrete Hg. This is consistent with usage of higher amounts of oral antibiotics… Higher usage of oral antibiotics in infancy may also partially explain the high incidence of chronic gastrointestinal problems seen in individuals with autism.

(Also see the Mercury and Other Mercury-related Resources sections under Link Between Neurological and Immune Disorders, Autoimmune Disease and the Lack of Reporting Adverse Events page.)

Acetaminophen and Autism

• Acetaminophen (paracetamol) use, measles-mumps-rubella vaccination, and autistic disorder: the results of a parent survey This preliminary study found that acetaminophen use after measles-mumps-rubella vaccination was associated with autistic disorder.
• Did Acetaminophen Provoke the Autism Epidemic? Considerable evidence supports this contention, most notably the exponential rise in the incidence of autism since 1980, when acetaminophen began to replace aspirin for infants and young children.
• Acetaminophen Induces Apoptosis in Rat cortical Neurons

(Also see the Metals, Environmental Toxins and Autism section above.)

Methylation and Autism

• Efficacy of methylcobalamin and folinic acid treatment on glutathione redox status in children with autism
• Metabolic endophenotype and related genotypes are associated with oxidative stress in children with autism
• Oxidative stress-related biomarkers in autism: Systematic review and meta-analyses

(Also see the Environment and Genetics in Autism section above and the Mercury section under Link Between Neurological and Immune Disorders.)

Neuroimmune Disorders and Autism

• Extracellular Mitochondrial Components Secreted from Activated Live Mast Cells Act as “Innate Pathogens” and Contribute to Autism Pathogenesis Recent results from the Centers of Disease Control in the USA indicate that as many as 1/80 children have ASD. Many such children regress at about 3 years, often after a specific event such as reaction to vaccination
• Autism: an emerging ‘neuroimmune disorder’ in search of therapy
• A possible central mechanism in autism spectrum disorders, part 1 A careful review of ASD cases discloses a number of events that adhere to an immunoexcitotoxic mechanism. This mechanism explains the link between excessive vaccination, use of aluminum and ethylmercury as vaccine adjuvants, food allergies, gut dysbiosis, and abnormal formation of the developing brain.
• A possible central mechanism in autism spectrum disorders, part 2: immunoexcitotoxicity
• A possible central mechanism in autism spectrum disorders, part 3: the role of excitotoxin food additives and the synergistic effects of other environmental toxins
• Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and Implications for Treatment
• Neuroglial activation and neuroinflammation in the brain of patients with autism

(Also see the Mercury, Neurological and Immunological Development, and Neurological and Immune Dysfunction sections under Link Between Neurological and Immune Disorders.)

Specific Vaccines and Vaccines in General

• A comparative evaluation of the effects of MMR immunization and mercury doses from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines on the population prevalence of autism The results of this study agree with a number of previously published studies. These studies have shown that there is biological plausibility and epidemiological evidence showing a direct relationship between increasing doses of mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, and measles-containing vaccines and serious neurological disorders.
• Extracellular Mitochondrial Components Secreted from Activated Live Mast Cells Act as “Innate Pathogens” and Contribute to Autism Pathogenesis Recent results [as of April 2013] from the Centers of Disease Control in the USA indicate that as many as 1/80 children have ASD. Many such children regress at about age 3 years, often after a specific event such as reaction to vaccination
• Hypothesis: Conjugate vaccines may predispose children to autism spectrum disorders
• Hepatitis B Vaccination of Male Neonates and Autism, NHIS 1997–2002
• Elevated levels of measles antibodies in children with autism …autistic children have a hyperimmune response to measles virus, which in the absence of a wild type of measles infection might be a sign of an abnormal immune reaction to the vaccine strain or virus reactivation.

(Also see the Gastrointestinal Disease and Autism section above, Allergy, Asthma, and Atopic Disease and the Specific Vaccines section under Link Between Neurological and Immune Disorders.)

Other Autism-related Resources

• Autism Studies & Related Medical Conditions by Talk About Curing Autism (TACA); published in 2008.
• Vaccines & Autism: What do Epidemiological Studies Really Tell Us? There are 16 epidemiological studies here on MMR vaccines, thimerosal and autism. These studies represent the most often cited papers by scientists, public health officials and members of the media when trying to refute any evidence of an association between vaccinations and autism.
  There are serious methodological limitations, design flaws, conflicts of interest or other problems related to each of these 16 studies. These flaws have been pointed out by government officials, other researchers, medical review panels and even the authors of the studies themselves.
• 100 Research papers supporting Vaccine/Autism Causation
• Mercury, Vaccines Hot Topics at Autism Hearing [US Congressional Hearing on Vaccine Safety, November 29, 2012] David Kirby (See at the end of the article the list of 30 studies which support a potential causative role for environmental factors, including mercury and vaccines.)
• Regarding Caroline Blog
• Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes – a review