HOW ABOUT A PUBLIC HEALTH ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PATERNAL AGE BELOW 33 AND CRYOBANKING SPERM IN ONES 20S

Public release date: 26-Apr-2007

Contact: Karen Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University

The Yale Child Study Center has been awarded the Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) status by the National Institutes of Health. This highly competitive and prestigious award comes with $7.5 million of direct funding over five years to the Autism Program led by Ami Klin.

“This is our largest award to date, and signifies a recognition of the national leadership in research of autism provided by our interdisciplinary group of clinical scientists,” said Klin, the Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology & Psychiatry in the Child Study Center. “The Yale ACE will further strengthen our commitment to finding the causes of autism and developing more effective treatments.”

Klin’s colleagues on the Yale ACE include Fred Volkmar, Robert Schultz, Warren Jones, Kasia Chawarska, Rhea Paul, Matthew State, Elena Grigorenko and Joseph Chang. The team plans three longitudinal projects focused on infants with autism aged 12 to 24 months. Another project involves neuroimaging studies of a cohort of children evaluated at various stages in their development, first at two years of age, then at four and eight and finally at 10-years-old. The researchers hope to trace underlying mechanisms of brain growth and specialization of individuals with autism. A fifth project focuses on a family of genes and linked proteins found to be associated with forms of autism.

Autism is a complex brain disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to communicate and develop social relationships, and it is often accompanied by extreme behavioral challenges. Autism affects about two million Americans. Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in one in 150 children in the United States and affects four times as many boys as girls. Researchers do not know how many subtypes of autism exist. There are probably several causes giving rise to this neurodevelopmental syndrome, but researchers have found that it is the most strongly genetic condition among all developmental disorders.

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Some generalities regarding the genetics and immunology of autism are below:  Autism displays increased frequency of genetic factors for immune responses, e.g., HLA, C4B null allele, extended haplotypes, etc.

 Autism involves a gender factor, i.e., it affects males about four times more than females.

 Autism often occurs in conjunction with a family history of autoimmune diseases, e.g., multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.

 Autism also involves hormonal factors, e.g., secretin, beta-endorphin, etc.

 Autism shows an association with infectious agents, in particular viruses.

 Autistic patients have immune abnormalities, especially those that characterize an autoimmune reaction in a disease.

 Autistic patients respond well to immune therapies.



Conclusion

The evidence is rapidly accumulating to suggest that autism is an autoimmune disorder. The autoimmune response is most likely directed against the brain myelin, perhaps secondary to a viral infection. Measles virus is a candidate but other possibilities remain to be explored. More importantly, the patients respond to treatment with immune therapies. Therefore, I conclude that autoimmunity offersstrong prospects for drug discovery and therapy for autism. Naturally, it deserves prompt attention from all those who want to help people with autism.

Selected Reading

Singh, V. K., "Plasma Increase of Interleukin-12 and Interferon-gamma: Pathological Significance in Autism" (Journal of Neuroimmunology, vol. 66, pp. 143-145 [1996]).

Singh, V. K., "Immunotherapy for Brain Diseases and Mental Illnesses," (Progress in Drug Research, vol. 43, pp. 129-146 [1997]).

Singh, V. K., "Serological Association of Measles Virus and Human Herpesvirus-6 With Brain Autoantibodies in Autism" (Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology, vol. 89, pp. 105-108 [1998]).

Singh, V. K., "Autoimmunity and Neurologic Disorders" (Latitudes, vol. 4, pp. 5-11 [1999]).

Dr. Singh received his doctorate from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His post-doctoral fellowship was completed in neurochemistry and neuroimmunology. Spanning over twenty years' experience in neurobiology and immunology research, Dr. Singh studied brain diseases, particularly infantile autism and Alzheimer's disease. Having authored over a hundred scientific publications, he is both a pioneer and an international authority on autoimmunity in autism. Dr. Singh is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Association of Immunologists, and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is listed in American Men and Women in Science (United States, R. R. Bowker, publisher) and The International Who's Who of Intellectuals (Cambridge, England, International Biographical Centre).

For further information, please contact Dr. Vijendra Singh, Ph.D., at the Biotechnology Center, Department of Biology, Utah State University, 4700 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-4700 [E-mail: singhvk@biology.usu.edu].

Reprinted from AAPN, The Autism Autoimmunity Project Newsletter, vol. 1, number 2, December 1999.



Links

"Autoimmunity and Neurological Disorders," interview with V. K. Singh in Latitudes, newsletter of the Association for
Comprehensive NeuroTherapy, http://www.latitudes.org/index.html, vol. 4, no. 2, Spring 1999, by Sheila
Rogers: http://lib.tcu.edu/www/staff/lruede/latitudes

"V. K. Singh: Selected Research on Autism," http://www.gti.net/truegrit/ : Findings in Immunology

"Vijendra K. Singh, Ph.D.: Selected Work on Alzheimer's Disease," (http://lib.tcu.edu/www/staff/lruede/alzheimers)