The latest autism research news stories with ASF Chief Science Officer Alycia Halladay
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Some autistics are offended by the word “protection” when it comes to autism, but in addition to things increasing the probability of a diagnosis, some things reduce the probability? This week’s podcast explores the female protective effect as well as a new study from the BASIS study in the UK looking at early regulatory function as a protective factor in ASD and ADHD traits.
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This week’s podcast includes a summary of the new study, this time in an animal model, looking at microbiome transplantation. Because this was more of an experimental model, the researchers could be more rigorous in their design and look at things like behavior, brain activity, and specific biological pathways. While a mouse does not have autism, transplantation of the autism microbiome resulted in autistic-like behaviors. Second, a hopeful message of the value of participating in research on outcomes – those infants that were tracked prospectively showed improved outcomes later on, suggesting that all of the extra attention they get leads to a reduction in symptoms and an improvement in adaptive behavior. Even if you do not have a family history of autism – participate in research. It’s good for your child, and it’s good for other people’s children.
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30502-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31032937
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Once again, this week another study came out dismissing the link between vaccines and autism. Add this one to the list, but this is one of the largest and takes into account genetic and non-genetic risk factors. It continues to discredit the vaccine-autism link. However, in other science, more evidence that prenatal folic acid supplementation, something women should be doing anyway, does reduce the probability of having a second child with autism. So take your folic acid – either by prescription or over the counter. As Martha Stewart says, it’s a good thing to do.
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This week’s headlines were focused on the new prevalence numbers of 1:40. They were not calculated using the same method as the 1:59 number, so should not be compared. In addition to looking at just prevalence, this survey identified a major problem for families, which is unmet mental health needs. Those with autism have higher unmet mental health needs than those with ADHD, anxiety or depression. Again, there is something unique about an autism diagnosis which poses a challenge to accessing care. In addition, a new summary paper outlined what needs to be done to better study regression in autism. The rate may be higher than you think if a new definition of regression is used.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30478241
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30475449
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Two new studies came out this week that implicates the role of the endocrine system in autism. The endocrine system which regulates hormones in your body, also has a key role in brain development early on in fetal and child development. PCOS is a metabolic condition and DDT is a toxic chemical banned years ago, but both are linked to the endocrine system, both are bad for many reasons, and both are linked to autism. These studies provide evidence that we should #savetheEPA and be aware of medical and environmental factors which do not cause, but contribute to autism. Also, PCOS is linked to autism in adult women, so ladies – if you show signs of PCOS, please talk to a doctor!
PCOS study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6068102/
DDT study: https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17101129
PCOS blog: https://www.rmanj.com/lifting-the-fog-on-polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos/
http://www.panna.org/resources/ddt-story
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Unfortunately this podcast does not really provide an answer, but does highlight data published over the holidays which shows in another dataset, that the prevalence of autism seems to be leveling out, rather than continue to increase as it has done for the past several decades. It isn’t the final word and clearly there may be exceptions, but now two national datasets have shown no further increase in autism prevalence in the last few years of looking. Is it 1:68 as reported in one study or 1:39 in another? Is it somewhere in between? Still to early to say, but white boys seem to be the most likely to get a diagnosis no matter where you look. Also, folic acid proves to show an effect on the probability of not just an autism diagnosis, but autism symptoms. This is especially important for women taking anti epileptic medications for seizures and bipolar depression. Welcome to 2018!
Here are links to the articles. Some of them are open access!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29297068
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db291.pdf
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2667432
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29279889
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This week a bunch of new studies came out that focused on changes in probability of having a child with autism after folic acid consumption during pregnancy. Moderate consumption folic acid and slightly elevated levels of plasma folate during pregnancy has now been shown in at least half a dozen scientific studies to reduce the chance of that child to be later diagnosed with autism. This is not a prevention effect, but a reduction in probability. There are enough studies on this question for a Chinese group to have organized them, put their data together, reanalyze them together and conclude that this is a real thing. If this was an effect seen after say, drinking battery acid, maybe it might require more consideration to recommend to the community. However, taking folic acid during pregnancy is something medical doctors are recommending pregnant women do anyway.
Want to learn more? Here are the studies:
Swedish Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28978695
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ppe.12414/epdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5625821/pdf/13229_2017_Article_170.pdf
Denmark Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28946926