-Caveat Lector-
This is nothing new for on this list it was reported over a year ago the
man parents concerned who believed this vaccines, the 5 in 1 shot as I
recall, was causing autism in babies born perfect and suddenly something
went wrong.
Thing a Senator was looking into this for he had a grandson who
developed autism after taking these same vaccines.
This publication is geared to professionls but they let me on
anyway.......
Top minds seem now to be concerned. And then we have this Anthrax
vaccine, and now they want to put live AIDS germs into little babies
blood when this horrendous vaccine is developed - tell me, would you
like to share this vaccine with your children - compliments no doubt now
made in China with new abortion pill and I bet our blackbird Admiral
Crowe has vested interest in this one too (along with Battelle who has
party working with Crowe who has wonderful interests in bacterial and
chemical warfare).
Saba
The Scientist 15[10]:16, May 14, 2001
RESEARCH
Autism on the Rise
Multidisciplinary efforts aim at finding the biological basis for a
complex disease
By Laura DeFrancesco
Courtesy Karen Pierce
The right image shows positive functional activity in the fusiform gyrus
(FG) and superior temporal sulcus (STS) in a group of normal subjects in
response to faces, in comparison to the lack of functional activity
noted in these regions in autistic patients (left image). The T value is
a metric of the functional NMR signal intensity in relation to the
variance.
The rate of autism is rising. The number of reported cases has increased
10-fold in the last few decades, from 1 in 2,500 in the 1970s to 1 in
250 in the 1990s.
Researchers are looking everywhere for the reason--from drinking water
to the womb--with no clear-cut answer to date. In part, the increased
incidence can be attributed to a broader definition of autism, which now
includes milder forms of the disorder,1 as well as to better diagnostics
and greater public awareness.2 But scientists don't know if these
reasons explain the entire increase.
At a late-April conference entitled "Autism: Deciphering the Puzzle,"
developmental biologists, geneticists, and neurobiologists gathered to
talk about this complex disease. While scientists attending the
conference at the California Institute of Technology could not explain
the huge jump in incidence, they did voice some hope: there is progress
in understanding the condition's biological basis, along with the
development of experimental models, and it could lead to better
treatments.
A Neurologist's Nightmare
Described by one participant as "a neurologist's nightmare," autism
affects a cohort of complex behaviors, involving impaired language
development, the inability to interact socially, and repetitive and
restrictive behaviors. Generally, autism is diagnosed in children aged 2
and older because the behaviors can't be observed at an earlier age. But
researchers are working on improving the tools for diagnosing autism,
particularly in young children.
As with many neurological diseases, including apraxia and fetal alcohol
syndrome, early intervention improves the prognosis.
Patricia Rodier, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the
University of Rochester, described an early intervention test at the
conference that is used with infants. Devised by Susan Bryson of York
University in Toronto, this test measures a child's ability to shift
focus from one stimulus to another. In the first part of the test, one
light is turned on, and then as a second light is turned on, the first
is shut off.
All children will shift their focus from the first to the second light.
In the second part of the test, the first light is left on. Here, normal
children will disengage from the first to the second light, but autistic
children cannot make that shift. Rodier showed dramatic video footage of
a 5-year-old autistic child attempting this task. A look of panic came
across the child's face, as he realized that he couldn't take his eyes
off the first light. In contrast, a severely retarded 6-month-old could
refocus her gaze with no problem.
One research tool that has eluded workers in this field is an
experimental animal model for autism, because the diagnosis relies on
human terms such as eye contact, facial expressions, and speech.
Bryson's test may be just the ticket; it provides a glimpse into the
nervous system but doesn't require learning or intelligence.
In the Mind's Eye
Many parents of autistic children suffer a heart-breaking burden: often,
their youngsters are not emotionally connected to them. A recent
University of Washington study, presented to the Society for Research in
Child Development, showed that autistic children don't respond to faces,
which could explain the emotional distance from their parents.
Measuring brain activity with a net of external electrodes, Geraldine
Dawson, director of the University of Washington Autism Center, found
that the brains of autistic children were electrophysiologically silent
when shown pictures of their mothers, while they did respond to other
pictures, such as their favorite toys.
At the Caltech conference, Eric Courchesne, professor of neurosciences
at the University of California, San Diego, presented live, deep-brain
scans that back Dawson's work. Using imaging techniques, Courchesne and
co-workers showed that the fusiform gyrus, the part of the brain
involved with face recognition, is not active when autistic children are
shown pictures of faces. Instead, in autistic children, each child
displays a different electrophysiological pattern. Why there is
decreased activity in the fusiform gyrus is unknown, but Karen Pierce,
the principal investigator, offers several explanations.
"One possibility is that limited exposure to faces in patients with
autism (perhaps due to innate preference, biases of processing style, or
learning) results in an underdevelopment or maldevelopment of
face-processing systems. Another reason is that the neural substrates
involved in face processing (e.g., fusiform gyrus or amygdala) is
abnormal in autism." She made her comments after the conference.
Thalidomide Revisited
Most everyone is familiar with the haunting pictures from the 1960s of
so-called thalidomide babies, who were born with deformed limbs after
their mothers took this sedative while pregnant.
Overlooked in the early studies is that many thalidomide children are
autistic--missed, no doubt, because their parents and doctors were
dealing with the more obvious and dramatic limb deformities. But in
1994, Swedish researchers reported the surprising finding that
thalidomide children had a high incidence of autism,3 and for
developmental biologist Rodier, this was helpful news, because the
Swedish researchers identified when, during their pregnancies, the women
took the drug.
Armed with these results, Rodier is developing an animal model for the
kinds of brain abnormalities observed with autism, since she knows
exactly when in the developmental program she needs to intervene. And
she has the environmental agents to do it. Though thalidomide doesn't
affect rodents in the same way as humans, Rodier has found that valproic
acid, a common anti-seizure drug known to induce autism, causes brain
damage in rodents, and precisely in the places expected, based on what's
known about this disease.
Meeting organizer Paul Patterson describes a promising experimental
system being developed in his lab at Caltech that is based on studies
linking prenatal infections and immune dysfunction with mental illness.
In developing a system that assesses how interactions between the immune
system and nervous system affect brain development, Patterson has
observed autistic-like behaviors in mice born to mothers exposed to
influenza during pregnancy using a battery of behavioral tests.
In one experiment, mice are dropped into a box. While normal mice move
around the box, frequently stretching to sniff the environment, mice
born to infected mothers stay in the corner, clinging to the wall and
sniffing only occasionally. Using this test and others, Patterson
intends to pick apart the immune response to see what proteins or
factors might be involved in explaining the offspring's odd behavior.
The evidence for a genetic component to autism is overwhelming and
indisputable.4 Consider, for example, that the parents of an autistic
child are more likely to have a second autistic child, as opposed to
those who have unaffected children.
In a normal family, the likelihood is 0.4 percent; if there already is
an autistic child, the odds grow to 2 to 3 percent.
With identical twins, if one is autistic, the likelihood that the second
will have some form of autism is a staggering 90 percent; with fraternal
twins, the odds shrink to 2 to 3 percent.
Strong sentiment exists, particularly among the parents of autistic
children, that environmental factors also are involved here. One popular
theory links immunizations, particularly measles, mumps, rubella (MMR),
with the onset of autism. Researchers at the Caltech meeting summarily
dismissed this notion, because scientific evidence, they say, does not
exist.
Several recent studies, including an Institute of Medicine report issued
April 23, did not show a correlation between MMR immunization and
autism.5 In a study published last February in the British Medical
Journal,6 there was no abrupt increase in the incidence of autism after
the MMR vaccine was introduced.
What about other environmental factors? Eric Hollander, professor of
psychiatry at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Clinical Director of
the Seaver Autism Research Center in New York City, is looking at
several factors. Noting that an unusually large number of women at his
clinic had pitocin-induced labor, Hollander is currently conducting a
survey of some 58,000 births recorded in a national perinatal database
to look for a connection between that drug and autism. Hollander also is
investigating the possibility that an infectious agent is involved.
He has found that in autistic children, a high expression level exists
of a particular B-cell marker, D8/17, which is associated with altered
sensitivity to streptococcus A.
Though much research has been carried out, there is still no complete
answer, or answers, as to why more autistic children exist today.
"Cautious folks will say that it is really impossible to say for sure
what the reason is at this point," Patterson says.
"Given the broadening of the diagnostic criteria, the heightened
recognition of the disorder by doctors, and the fact that parents only
get state funds to help with special education ... if the child has a
diagnosis of a severe disorder such as autism, we'll only be able to
tell if this is a true rise in incidence after the dust has settled."
Laura DeFrancesco ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is a contributing editor
for The Scientist.
References
1. E. Fombonne, "The epidemiology of autism: a review," Psychological
Medicine, 29: 769-86, 2000.
2. C. Lord et al., "Autism spectrum disorders," Neuron 28(2): 355-63,
2001.
3. K. Str�mland, K. et al., "Autism in thalidomide embryopathy: A
population study," Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 36:
351-6, 1994.
4. A. Bailey, "Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a
British twin study," Psychological Medicine, 25:63-77, 1995.
5. "Immunization Safety Review: Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine and
Autism," Institute of Medicine, April 23, 2001.
6. J.A. Kaye et al., "Mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine and the
incidence of autism recorded by general practitioners; a time trend
analysis," British Medical Journal, 322:460-3, 2001.
The Scientist 15[10]:16, May 14, 2001
� Copyright 2001, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.
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