Possible immunological disorders in autism: concomitant autoimmunity and immune tolerance

Click the title to link to the full study.

1: Egypt J Immunol. 2006;13(1):99-104.

*Possible immunological disorders in autism: concomitant
autoimmunity and immune tolerance.*

Kawashti MI, Amin OR, Rowehy NG.
Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine (For Girls), Al Azhar
University, Cairo, Egypt.

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that affect children
early in their life. Immunological disorders is one of several
contributing factors that have been suggested to cause autism.
Thirty autistic children aged 3-6 years and thirty non-autistic
psychologically-free siblings were studied. Circulating IgA and IgG
autoantibodies to casein and gluten dietary proteins were detected
by enzyme-immunoassays (EIA). Circulating IgG antibodies to measles,
mumps and rubella vaccine (M.M.R) and cytomeglovirus were
investigated by EIA. Results revealed high seropositivity for
autoantibodies to casein and gluten: 83.3% and 50% respectively in
autistic children as compared to 10% and 6.7% positivity in the
control group. Surprisingly, circulating anti-measles, anti-mumps
and anti-rubella IgG were positive in only 50%, 73.3% and 53.3%
respectively as compared to 100% positivity in the control group.
Anti-CMV IgG was positive in 43.3% of the autistic children as
compared to 7% in the control group. It is concluded that,
autoimmune response to dietary proteins and deficient immune
response to measles, mumps and rubella vaccine antigens might be
associated with autism, as a leading cause or a resulting event.
Further research is needed to confirm these findings.