Biomarkers of ASD, understanding the role of genetics and

[HysteryDiagnosis]

susceptibility to environmental stressors.

Curr Opin Neurol. 2010 Apr;23(2):103-10.
Contributions of the environment and environmentally vulnerable physiology to autism spectrum disorders.
Herbert MR.
TRANSCEND Research Program, Pediatric Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA. [email protected]
Abstract

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review presents a rationale and evidence for contributions of environmental influences and environmentally vulnerable physiology to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

RECENT FINDINGS: Recent studies suggest a substantial increase in ASD prevalence above earlier Centers for Disease Control figures of one in 150, only partly explicable by data artifacts, underscoring the possibility of environmental contributors to increased prevalence. Some gene variants in ASD confer altered vulnerability to environmental stressors and exposures. De-novo mutations and advanced parental age as a risk factor for ASD also suggest a role for environment.

Systemic and central nervous system pathophysiology, including oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction can be consistent with a role for environmental influence (e.g. from air pollution, organophosphates, heavy metals) in ASD, and some of the underlying biochemical disturbances (such as abnormalities in glutathione, a critical antioxidant and detoxifier) can be reversed by targeted nutritional interventions. Dietary factors and food contaminants may contribute risk.

Improvement and loss of diagnosis in some with ASD suggest brain circuitry amenable to environmental modulation.

SUMMARY: Prevalence, genetic, exposure, and pathophysiological evidence all suggest a role for environmental factors in the inception and lifelong modulation of ASD. This supports the need for seeking targets for early and ongoing medical prevention and treatment of ASD.
PMID: 20087183

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. But wait there's more

Acta Neurobiol Exp (Wars). 2010;70(2):209-26.
The biological basis of autism spectrum disorders: Understanding causation and treatment by clinical geneticists.

Geier DA, Kern JK, Geier MR.
The Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.

Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) also known as pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) are a behaviorally defined group of neurodevelopmental disorders that are usually diagnosed in early childhood. ASDs disproportionately affect male children. Mercury (Hg) a heavy metal, is widespread and persistent in the environment. Mercury is a ubiquitous source of danger in fish, drugs, fungicides/herbicides, dental fillings, thermometers, and many other products.

Elevated Hg concentrations may remain in the brain from several years to decades following exposure. This is important because investigators have long recognized that Hg is a neurodevelopmental poison; it can cause problems in neuronal cell migration and division, and can ultimately cause cell degeneration and death.

Case-reports of patients have described developmental regressions with ASD symptoms following fetal and/or early childhood Hg exposure, and epidemiological studies have linked exposure to Hg with an elevated risk of a patient being diagnosed with an ASD. Immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions similar to traits defining or associated with ASDs were reported following Hg intoxication with similarities extending to neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters, and biochemistry. The sexual dimorphism of ASDs may result from synergistic neurotoxicity caused by the interaction of testosterone and Hg; in contrast, estrogen is protective, mitigating the toxicity of Hg.

Mercury exposure may significantly increase androgen levels, and as a result, patients diagnosed with an ASD may significantly benefit from anti-androgen therapy. Finally, the clinical geneticist has a wealth of biomarkers to evaluate and treat patients diagnosed with an ASD.
PMID: 20628444 Free Article

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. And more

Pediatr Int. 2010 Jul 4.
Toxicity Biomarkers in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Blinded Study of Urinary Porphyrins.
Kern JK, Geier DA, Adams JB, Mehta JA, Grannemann BD, Geier MR.
Genetic Consultants of Dallas/ASD Centers, LLC., Allen, Texas.

Abstract
Abstract Background: Recent studies suggest children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have significantly increased levels of urinary porphyrins associated with mercury (Hg) toxicity, including pentacarboxyporphyrin (5cxP), precoproporphyrin (prcP), and coproporphyrin (cP), compared to typically developing controls. However, these initial studies were criticized because the controls were not age- and gender-matched to the children diagnosed with an ASD.

Methods: Urinary porphyrin biomarkers in a group of children (2-13 years of age) diagnosed with an ASD (n=20) were compared to matched (age, gender, race, location, and year tested) group of typically developing controls (n = 20). Results: Participants diagnosed with an ASD had significantly increased levels of 5cxP, prcP, and cP in comparison to controls. No significant differences were found in non-Hg associated urinary porphyrins (uroporphyrins, hexacarboxyporphyrin, and heptacarboxyporphyrin).

There was a significantly increased odds ratio for an ASD diagnosis relative to controls among study participants with precoproporphyrin (odds ratio = 15.5, p < 0.01) and coproporphyrin (odds ratio = 15.5, p < 0.01) levels in the second through fourth quartiles in comparison to the first quartile. Conclusion: These results suggest that the levels of Hg-toxicity-associated porphyrins are higher in children with an ASD diagnosis than controls.
Although the pattern seen (increased 5cxP, prcP, and cP) is characteristic of Hg toxicity, the influence of other factors, such as genetics and other metals cannot be completely ruled-out.
PMID: 20626635
LinkOut - more resources

[semillama]

7. Would these be the Geiers who are into chemically castrating childen?

Not a very good way to support your arguments, citing that dynamic duo...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-autism-lupron-geiers-may21,0,983359.story

"In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that a Geier study finding a link between vaccines and autism was marred by "numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements."

The following year, the Institute of Medicine concluded in a report that the purported connection between mercury in vaccines and autism did not exist. The government-sanctioned committee of scientists reserved harsh words for the Geiers' work, saying their research was "uninterpretable" and marred by "serious methodological problems."

Abbott Laboratories, which sells Lupron in the U.S., once applied for a patent with the Geiers through a now-defunct joint venture with another drug company, yet never pursued work with them. A spokeswoman for the North Chicago-based company said there was no scientific evidence to justify further research."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-autism-lupron-may21,0,242705.story

"Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in England and director of the Autism Research Center in Cambridge, said it is irresponsible to treat autistic children with Lupron.

"The idea of using it with vulnerable children with autism, who do not have a life-threatening disease and pose no danger to anyone, without a careful trial to determine the unwanted side effects or indeed any benefits, fills me with horror," he said.

Experts in childhood hormones warn that Lupron can disrupt normal development, interfering with natural puberty and potentially putting children's heart and bones at risk. The treatment also means subjecting children to daily injections, including painful shots deep into muscle every other week."

[KT2000]

3. You may have heard

of people who have developed chemical sensitivities. In adults this is a group of people who have been overexposed to certain chemicals and suffered illness as a result. Brain dysfunction is one of the common symptoms - short term memory loss, difficulty learning new things, loss of cognitive skills such as math and grammar and on and on. To put it simply, the brains connections get scrambled.
As an adult who has been socialized and educated, the struggle is to find normal again. For a child who has not been socialized or educated, the result could be devastating. Their task is not to find normal because they do not know what that is. Their task is to find order in what they may experience as chaos.

You may wish to follow the research that is done on chemical sensitivity because they are is finding the same results as you are posting on ASD. Doctors who treat people with CS have been using the nutritional protocol suggested in your articles for several years now.

According to researcher Martin Pall PhD, chemical sensitivity syndrome holds the key to understanding a host of brain disorders. As instant reactors, they could reveal much information on the role of environmental stressors on the human body and especially the brain. Mainstream medicine refuses to do this.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. I celebrate these articles for the reason that they are coming from

mainstream medicine. I honestly doubt that without the constant prodding of the internet that any of this would have come about for a couple more decades.

[Mnemosyne]

5. Thank you for this, HD. It is quite interesting to see how much the research is changing.

Mercury is deadly destructive. Period. Chronic low-level exposure has destroyed my family, starting exposure in 1965 until 1985. Milk hauler family.

The truth will out...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Today on NPR they interviewed a mother who takes her daughter

on a two hour trip for chelation therapy. Point is there are unscrupulous websters hawking at home chelation therapy kits for kids and that in itself should be considered a crime. Kidneys must be monitored when this sort of thing is undertaken and I for one hope the FDA pulls the plug on these companies/persons.


http://www.npr.org/2011/01/03/132474747/flushing-out-lead-metals-with-chelation-therapy




She's a fast-moving first-grader with copper-colored hair. Katie has bright brown eyes but has trouble making eye contact. She also has autism — and she doesn't really speak, but she makes a kind of whooping sound when she's happy.

But Katie is not here for autism treatment. The treatment she has been getting — chelation therapy — is to get her lead levels down. Although hospitals offer the treatment, some desperate parents are turning to home-based chelation kits and over-the-counter pills, which doctors say can be more dangerous.

Lead can cause serious behavioral problems in kids and lower their IQs. When Katie's lead levels are high, she gets irritable and has more trouble learning, her mom says.

"She takes all my time," Oliver says.