Infections associated with Autism

 

Infections

 

 

 

 

Electron microscopy of mycoplasma species.

 

It is difficult to carry out this type of research.   Some of the infections are unclear to have been specific, unclear when they took place, and may simply be associated with changes in immunity. 

 

It is most commonly claimed by both patients and doctors that the ASD is indeed associated with multiple minor infections in young children.  They notice an increase in the amount of antibiotics that are being used and the number of times that they have to take the child to the doctor for some investigation.  However much of this has not been assessed statistically and not published adequately in scientific literature.

 

One of the clearest signs of infection is shown by the work of Nicholson, which does not just show that the infection (chlamydia, mycoplasma and HHV-6) has been more likely than in controls but also that DNA of the agents are remaining in the blood of the autistic patients at a later point.  This finding must be explained by any attempt to explain ASD as a single condition as it was significant, and the work was well carried out.

 

The fact that inoculation of the child with specific antigens from the environment, and from infective agents may give rise to antibodies active against neurones is interesting but has not been repeated.  The titre of these antibodies or the activity against neurones in vivo has not yet been shown.

 

Certain vaccines are live and some are simply as proteins or dead infective agents.  The possibility of them being a cause for ASD symptoms is still under argument.  It is important to see the literature on vaccines.

Non-specific:  This is unclear to some degree in that some researchers are quite determined that there is an increase in  coughs and colds in younger ASD children and others disagree.

 

Torres AR. Is fever suppression involved in the etiology of autism and neurodevelopmental disorders? BMC Pediatr. 2003 Sep 2;3:9. Epub 2003 Sep 2. Review.   (Zimmerman.  Fever can loosen grip of autism says study: Reuters, 2007) He noticed that fever decreased symptoms of the condition during the time that it was present.

 

Libbey JE, Sweeten TL, McMahon WM, Fujinami RS. Autistic disorder and viral infections. J Neurovirol. 2005 Feb;11(1):1-10. (Many studies over the years have presented evidence both for and against the association of autism with various viral infections. The best association to date has been made between congenital rubella and autism; however, members of the herpes virus family may also have a role in autism. Review)

 

Matarazzo EB. Treatment of late onset autism as a consequence of probable autommune processes related to chronic bacterial infection. World J Biol Psychiatry. 2002 Jul;3(3):162-6. (two cases in which the autistic symptoms followed specific infections)

 

Landrigan PJ, Witte JJ. Neurologic disorders following live measles-virus vaccination. JAMA. 1973 Mar 26;223(13):1459-62.

 

Fallon J Could one of the most widely prescribed antibiotics amoxicillin/clavulanate "augmentin" be a risk factor for autism? Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(2):312-5. (Since the introduction of clavulanate/amoxicillin in the 1980s there has been the increase in numbers of cases of autism. In this study 206 children under the age of three years with autism were screened by means of a detailed case history. A significant commonality was discerned and that being the level of chronic otitis media. These children were found to have a mean number 9.96 bouts of otitis media (with a standard error of the mean of +/-1.83). This represents a sum total for all 206 children of 2052 bouts of otitis media. These children received a mean number of 12.04 courses of antibiotics (standard error of the mean of +/-.125). Unfortunately this was a study without clear controls but it is a hypothesis as augmentin was brought in during the mid 1980s)

Gurney JG, McPheeters ML, Davis MM. Parental report of health conditions and health care use among children with and without autism: National Survey of Children's Health. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006 Aug;160(8):825-30.  (Children with autism had significantly (P<.001) higher mean physician visits over 12 months for preventive care, nonemergency care, and hospital emergency care, and were far more likely than children without autism to receive physical, occupational, or speech therapy (76.0% vs 6.3%), to need treatment or counselling for an emotional, developmental, or behavioral problem (75.4% vs 7.0%), and, among those taking a prescribed medication, to be using a medication long-term (51.4% vs 14.5%). They found markedly higher reports of concurrent conditions and health care use associated with childhood autism in this study but they did not find a great increase in infections)  Free article good: the clearest medical factor that was present was concerning ear infections but not enough questions were asked of the parents to make things more precise).

 

Castillo M. Autism and ADHD: common disorders, elusive explanations. Acad Radiol. 2005 May;12(5):533-4.  (no data on PubMed)

Konstantareas MM, Homatidis S. Ear infections in autistic and normal children. J Autism Dev Disord. 1987 Dec;17(4):585-94. (Autistic children had a greater incidence of ear infections than matched normal peers. Lower-functioning children had an earlier onset of ear infections than their higher-functioning autistic peers. Ear infections coexisted with low-set ears, and with a higher autistic symptomatology score.)

 

Gillberg C, Coleman M. Autism and medical disorders: a review of the literature. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1996 Mar;38(3):191-202.

 

 

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Excess antibiotic usage in ASD: few useful statistics but commonly claimed by clinicians

 

Manev R, Manev H. Aminoglycoside antibiotics and autism: a speculative hypothesis. BMC Psychiatry. 2001;1:5. Epub 2001 Oct 10 (poor article) Excess antibiotics has been reported in numerous places but statistics are difficult to find

Adams and Rumdalvik (see under mercury).  Shows an increase in the use of oral antibiotics in autistic children.

 

Croen LA, Najjar DV, Ray GT, Lotspeich L, Bernal P. A comparison of health care utilization and costs of children with and without autism spectrum disorders in a large group-model health plan. Pediatrics. 2006 Oct;118(4):e1203-11. (they show the chance of the use of anti-infective agents as being greater than in controls (p=0.001) but the ratio was not great)

 

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Chlamydia pneumonia, mycoplasma, HHV-6 , measles and other specific organisms 

(There is some evidence that Chlamydia pneumonia is associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), as may be autism.  Also, autoimmune conditions are involved in MS as is autism.  Treatment of MS against C. pneumoniae seems to have an effect in improving the condition.)

 

Nicolson GL, Gan R, Nicolson NL, Haier J.  Evidence for Mycoplasma ssp., Chlamydia pneunomiae, and human herpes virus-6 coinfections in the blood of patients with autistic spectrum disorders.   J Neurosci Res. 2007 Apr;85(5):1143-8. (a large subset (28/48 or 58.3%) of ASD patients showed evidence of perhaps multiple Mycoplasma spp infections, using PCR techniques to look for the DNA or the organism, compared with two of 45 (4.7%) age-matched control subjects.  The presence of one or more systemic infections may predispose ASD patients to other infections, so they examined the prevalence of C. pneumoniae (4/48 or 8.3% positive, odds ratio = 5.6, P < 0.01, controls 1/48) and human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6, 14/48 or 29.2%, odds ratio = 4.5, P < 0.01, controls 4/48) coinfections in ASD patients.

 

Nicolson GL, Nicolson GL, Gan R, Haier J. 2005b. Chronic Mycoplasmal infections in Gulf War Veterans' children and autism patients.  Med Veritas 2:383-387.

 

Sweeten TL, Posey DL, McDougle CJ.  Brief report: autistic disorder in three children with cytomegalovirus infection.  J. Autistism Dev Disord.  2004;34:583-6.

 

Yamashita Y, Fujimoto C, Nakajima E, Isagai T, Matsuishi T. 2003. Possible association between congenital cytomegalovirus infection and autistic disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 33:355-459.

 

Libbey JE, Sweeten TL, McMahon WM, Fujinami RS. Autistic disorder and viral infections. J Neurovirol. 2005 Feb;11(1):1-10. (Many studies over the years have presented evidence both for and against the association of autism with various viral infections. The best association to date has been made between congenital rubella and autism; however, members of the herpes virus family may also have a role in autism. Review)

 

Molloy CA, Morrow AL, Meinzen-Derr J, Dawson G, Bernier R, Dunn M, Hyman SL, McMahon WM, Goudie-Nice J, Hepburn S, Minshew N, Rogers S, Sigman M, Spence MA, Tager-Flusberg H, Volkmar FR, Lord C. Familial autoimmune thyroid disease as a risk factor for regression in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a CPEA Study. J Autism Dev Disord. 2006 Apr;36(3):317-24.

 

Jirapinyo P, Thakerngpol K, Chaichanwatanakul K. Cytopathic effects of measles virus on the human intestinal mucosa. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1990 May;10(4):550-4.  (simply showing that measles will grow in the mucosa in vitro)

 

Jirapinyo P. Presence of measles virus in human intestinal mucosa. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1991 Apr;12(3):404. (this was simply to show that if you looked in gut wall of humans you could find the virus.  This was in cases of measles, and not in inflammatory bowel disease or necessarily after vaccines)

 

See Singh-VK research showing elevated measles antibodies, abnormal measles antibodies and an association of them with herpes virus-6 and autoantibodies. See measles vaccine

 

Montgomery SM, Morris DL, Pounder RE, Wakefield AJ  Paramyxovirus infections in childhood and subsequent inflammatory bowel disease.  Gastroenterology. 1999 Apr;116(4):796-803. (note the comments in a later article)  (Mumps infection before age 2 years was a risk for ulcerative colitis (odds ratio, 25.12; 95% confidence interval, 6. 35-99.36). Measles and mumps infections in the same year of life were significantly associated with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, with odds ratios of 7.47 (2.42-23.06) and 4.27 (1.24-14.46), but not with IDDM. These relationships are independent of each other as well as sex, social class at birth, household crowding in childhood, and family history of IBD.  Note that measles is a paramyxovirus)

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For indications of measles in infection see measles vaccine site and CSF.

 

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Antibodies to neurone specific antigens as a result of exposure to infection

 

Vojdani A, Campbell AW, Anyanwu E, Kashanian A, Bock K, Vojdani E. Antibodies to neuron-specific antigens in children with autism: possible cross-reaction with encephalitogenic proteins from milk, Chlamydia pneumoniae and Streptococcus group A.  J Neuroimmunol. 2002 Aug;129(1-2):168-77. Erratum in: J Neuroimmunol 2002 Sep;130(1-2):248. (autoantibodies against nine different neuron-specific antigens and three cross-reactive peptides in the sera of autistic subjects and healthy controls by means of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing. The antigens were myelin basic protein (MBP), myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), ganglioside (GM1), sulfatide (SULF), chondroitin sulfate (CONSO4), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), alpha,beta-crystallin (alpha,beta-CRYS), neurofilament proteins (NAFP), tubulin and three cross-reactive peptides, Chlamydia pneumoniae (CPP), streptococcal M protein (STM6P) and milk butyrophilin (BTN). Autistic children showed the highest levels of IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies against all neurologic antigens as well as the three cross-reactive peptides. These antibodies are specific because immune absorption demonstrated that only neuron-specific antigens or their cross-reactive epitopes could significantly reduce antibody levels. These antibodies may have been synthesized as a result of an alteration in the blood-brain barrier. This barrier promotes access of preexisting T-cells and central nervous system antigens to immunocompetent cells, which may start a vicious cycle. These results suggest a mechanism by which bacterial infections and milk antigens may modulate autoimmune responses in autism.)

 

Anti-Measles/Rubella/Mumbs antibodies derived from MMR that are found to be active against neuronal tissue, also an indication of the anti-HHV6.  See the data under vaccines. 

 

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Infection/immunisazation episodes and autism (see discussions etc under ‘vaccines’)

 

Takahashi H, Arai S, Tanaka-Taya K, Okabe N. 2001. Autism and infection/immunization episodes in Japan. Jpn J Infect Dis 54:78–79.

Rudolf Wank.   Schizophrenia and other mental disorders require long-term adoptive immunotherapy. Med Hypotheses. 2002 Aug ;59 (2):154-8  They justify this through a patient with bipolar disease, schizophrenia and autism responded to immunotherapy. 

 

Warren RP, Singh VK, Averett RE, Odell JD, Maciulis A, Burger RA, Daniels WW, Warren WL. Immunogenetic studies in autism and related disorders. Mol Chem Neuropathol. 1996 May-Aug;28(1-3):77-81.  (a genetic report on C4B allele)

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