Is their a link between autism and lyme disease? No.

Some patients have asked about a link between autism and lyme disease. There does not appear to be a significant link. - JR

Autism-Lyme 

Correlation Debunked

Researchers find zero evidence for Lyme-induced autism.

WIKIMEDIA, SCOTT BAUER, USDA

The hypothesized link between autism and Lyme disease loses ground with a new study that found no evidence of an infection in patients with the social development disorder. The results, published today (April 30) in the Journal of the American Medical Association, imply that antibiotics against the Lyme disease pathogen—a popular new strategy for autism—will not ameliorate most patients’ symptoms.

“The data don’t address whether a single case of autism was ever caused by Lyme disease, but it rules out the suggestion that it does so with any frequency,” said Armin Alaedini, an immunologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and an author on the study. “I think that for me, this is the end of looking into the link between autism and Lyme.”  

In recent years, some doctors have anecdotally noted that many of their autism patients have Lyme disease. Two small studies listed in a booklet from a 2007 meeting of the Lyme-Induced Autism Foundation, a Corona, California-based organization that advocates an “eclectic healing approach,” reported that 1 in 5 autistic patients had the tick-borne disease. Websites on the topic now put that number closer to 9 out of 10. These statistics, however, have not been peer-reviewed. Nonetheless, some doctors prescribe antibiotics to autistic children and say the therapy quells their symptoms.

To systematically assess the prevalence of Lyme disease among people with autism, Armin Alaedini, an immunologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and his colleagues analyzed blood samples from 120 children and teens: 70 participants had autism, and 50 served as healthy controls. Alaedini looked for antibodies against the bacterium underlying Lyme, Borrelia burgdorferi, and found that not a single participant tested positive for the infection.

“This means that you wouldn’t see 20 percent of children with autism getting their disease from Lyme,” Alaedini said. He entered into the study objectively, he said, wanting to explore a correlation that had gained traction among doctors and the public. “Autism has become a hot topic, and a lot of people are publishing findings that are bogus but still alarm parents.”

M. Ajamian et al., “Serologic markers of Lyme disease in children with autism,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 309: 1771-72, 2013.

Link to article here

This is an evidence-based article on autism treatment. JR

New Hope for Autistic Children Who Never Learn to Speak

Apr. 24, 2013 — An Autistica consultation published this month found that 24% of children with autism were non-verbal or minimally verbal, and it is known that these problems can persist into adulthood.

Professionals have long attempted to support the development of language in these children but with mixed outcomes. An estimated 600,000 people in the UK and 70 million worldwide have autism, a neuro-developmental condition which is life-long.

Today, scientists at the University of Birmingham publish a paper in Frontiers in Neuroscience showing that while not all of the current interventions used are effective, there is real hope for progress by using interventions based on understanding natural language development and the role of motor and "motor mirroring" behaviour in toddlers.

The researchers, led by Dr Joe McCleery, who is supported by autism research charity Autistica, examined over 200 published papers and more than 60 different intervention studies, and found that:

• Motor behaviours, such as banging toys and copying gestures or facial expressions ("mirroring"), play a key role in the learning of language.
• Children with autism show specific motor impairments, and less "mirroring" brain activity, particularly in relation to strangers in whom they show very little interest. This finding may hold the key to language problems overall.
• Despite extensive use of sign language training to improve speech and communication skills in non-verbal children with autism, there is very little evidence that it makes a positive impact, potentially due to the impairments in motor behaviours and mirroring.
• Picture exchange training can lead to improvements in speech. Here, children gradually learn to "ask" for things by exchanging pictures. This may work well because it does not depend on complex motor skills or mirroring.
• Play-based approaches which employ explicit teaching strategies and are developmentally based are particularly successful.
• New studies involving a focus on motor skills alongside speech and language intervention are showing promising preliminary results. This is exciting because these interventions utilise our new understanding of the role of motor behaviours in the development of speech and social interaction.

...

Christine Swabey, CEO of Autistica, says: "80% of the parents in our recent consultation wanted interventions straight after diagnosis. Dr McCleery's work shows how critical it is for all intervention to be evidence-based, and that the best approaches are based on a real understanding of the development of difficulties in autism. We are proud to be supporting the next steps in this vital research which will improve the quality of life for people with autism."

Alison Hardy, whose son Alfie is six, says: "As a parent of an autistic child, who is non-verbal, I feel quite vulnerable. People are always saying "try this, it worked wonders for us." But you can't try everything. We need a proper, scientific evidence base for what works and what does not. Then we can focus our time and our effort, with some confidence that we have a chance of helping our children."

link here

Tipping Point in Autism: What is Whole-Exome Sequencing? How it Identifies Inherited Mutations in Autism

If your child has undergone testing before without diagnosis, consider re-visiting testing. JR

Whole-Exome Sequencing Identifies Inherited Mutations in Autism

Jan. 23, 2013 — While autism clearly runs in some families, few inherited genetic causes have been found. A major reason is that these causes are so varied that it's hard to find enough people with a given mutation to establish a clear pattern. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have pinpointed several inherited mutations -- among the first to be identified -- through an unusual approach: using whole-exome sequencing to study large Middle Eastern families with autism.

The study, published in the January 23 issue of the journal Neuron, also found evidence for some of the same mutations in U.S. families. It shows that a number of genes implicated in severe genetic syndromes can have milder mutations that primarily cause autism, and could broaden the number of genetic tests available to families.

Researchers Tim Yu, MD, PhD, Maria Chahrour, PhD, and senior investigator Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital, began with three large Middle Eastern families that had two or more children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), looking for recessive mutations -- those requiring a "double hit" for the child to have an ASD.

"Families from the U.S. are not ideal for finding inherited genetic mutations, since family sizes are often small," says Walsh, chief of Genetics at Boston Children's and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
In all three families, the parents were first cousins, a common tradition in the Middle East and one that greatly facilitates the identification of inherited mutations. The researchers first used genetic mapping techniques to narrow their search to specific chromosomal locations, then sequenced the protein-coding genes in those areas (known as whole-exome sequencing).

That turned up recessive mutations in three genes not previously known to be involved in autism, but rather in severe genetic syndromes:

• Mutations in AMT, a gene classically associated with a severe metabolic syndrome known as nonketotic hyperglycinemia, marked by severe seizures and death during infancy.
• Mutations in PEX7. Typical PEX7 mutations cause rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata, a severe syndrome causing metabolic and bone abnormalities, cataracts, severe epilepsy and early death.
• Mutations in SYNE1, a gene associated with brain malformation, severe motor and muscle problems, and possibly bipolar psychiatric disease.

The severe syndromes linked to these genes often include autistic behavior or intellectual disability, but not as the primary symptom. Interestingly, the milder mutations discovered in these families seemed to cause disease that is more brain-specific.
"This is the first time these genes have been associated with autism," says Chahrour, who shares first authorship of the study with Yu. "The AMT and PEX7 mutations weren't picked up by standard tests for metabolic disorders, but when you're able to sequence the entire exome, you can find them."
These findings inspired the team to look for other metabolic and other genetic syndromes affecting cognition and behavior with milder forms showing up simply as autism. They screened 163 Middle Eastern families with autism for mutations in 70 genes associated with these syndromes, using a whole-exome approach but analyzing only the 70 genes of interest.
This approach turned up several additional families with ASD mutations, including:

• An additional family with a recessive mutation in AMT
• Two families with recessive mutations in VPS13B (known to cause Cohen syndrome, which includes intellectual disability, obesity, vision and joint problems, and small head size)
• A family with a recessive mutation in POMGNT1 (known to cause muscle-eye-brain disease, marked by brain malformation, intellectual disability, muscle and vision problems)
• A family with an X-linked mutation in MECP2 in two boys (MECP2 mutations are known to cause Rett syndrome in girls, but are typically lethal in boys)

"We have textbook descriptions of all these diseases, but in real life, there can be atypical, milder presentations of the same disease," says Yu. "The kids we were studying with autism were alive at age 13. They had double hits for these mutations, but they were much milder mutations. The proteins retained a bit of their function."

The team also examined a cohort of U.S. patients, looking for recessive mutations in six of the genes they identified. They analyzed whole-exome sequence data from 612 families with ASDs, part of a registry known as the Simons Simplex Collection. The analysis suggested that some of the affected children had causative recessive mutations in at least two of the genes identified in the Middle Eastern families, and that larger-scale efforts to examine all 70 genes more fully for recessive mutations may prove fruitful.

"It's not clear yet how many U.S. families have these recessive mutations," says Yu. "Further studies could begin to estimate what fraction of autism cases might fall under this model."

"Together, these two studies firmly establish that recessive mutations contribute importantly to autism, not just in specialized populations but in the population at large," says Yu. "Genome sequencing is going to be a huge advance in identifying more of these mutations, since there are a lot of rare syndromes that are otherwise very difficult to detect."

Study: Early Autism Intervention Improves Brain Responses to Social Cues

A study shows promising signs that behavioral intervention can positively change brain function in toddlers with autism.

An autism intervention program that emphasizes social interactions and is designed for children as young as 12 months has been found to improve cognitive skills and brain responses to faces, considered a building block for social skills. The researchers say that the study, which was completed at the University of Washington, is the first to demonstrate that an intensive behavioral intervention can change brain function in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders.

"So much of a toddler's learning involves social interaction, and early intervention that promotes attention to people and social cues may pay dividends in promoting the normal development of the brain and behavior," said Geraldine Dawson, lead author and chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

"For the first time, parents and practitioners have evidence that early intervention can result in an improved course of both brain and behavioral development in young children," she said.

Dawson began the study while she was the director of the UW Autism Center. The study was published online Oct. 26 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Forty-eight children, aged 18 to 30 months and diagnosed with autism, either participated in routine community-based interventions or the Early Start Denver Model, which emphasizes interpersonal exchanges and shared participation in activities. The model was developed by Dawson and co-author Sally Rogers, a professor at the UC Davis MIND Institute.

Participants received one of the interventions for about 20 hours each week over a period of two years. For the children randomly assigned to the ESDM group, treatment took place two hours, twice a day, five days a week, by trained interventionists who came to the child's home. The children got an extra boost from their parents, who were trained to use ESDM strategies during routine exchanges with their child.

A previous study found that the ESDM intervention improved IQ, language, and adaptive skills and the researchers wanted to know if the approach also led to brain changes.

After two years of treatment, the brain function of the participants -- now about four to five years old -- was measured with electroencephalography while the youngsters viewed social stimuli, such as faces, and nonsocial stimuli, such as toys.

"Humans are experts at processing faces, but the brains of children with autism have delays in the ability respond to faces," said co-author Sara Webb, a UW research associate professor. If the brain can quickly identify a face, she said, then it can build on this to also quickly decide whether the face is of a man or a woman, happy or sad, and familiar or not.

Children in both intervention groups showed similar brain responses to faces as did children in a control group who did not have autism, suggesting that "the high level of intervention in both groups allowed the children with autism to catch up to the children in the control group," Webb said. "That's fantastic news."

Looking at a higher level of brain processing, the researchers studied whether the treatments changed brain measures of attention and cognitive engagement when seeing faces compared with a nonsocial stimulus. Eleven of 15 -- or 73 percent -- of children in the ESDM group showed greater attention to faces than to toys. In contrast, the EEGs of only five of the 14 recipients of the community intervention, or 36 percent, showed similar activation.

"The ESDM intervention resulted in greater attention and cognition brain activity to social stimuli, and these brain function patterns are more similar to the typical developing group of children," Webb said.

She stressed not only the importance of receiving intensive early intervention for autism, but that the intervention should focus on enhancing social attention, reciprocal interactions and engagement with a social partner.

Other study authors at UW are Emily Jones, Kaitlin Venema, Rachel Lowy, Susan Faja, Dana Kamara, Michale Murias, Jessica Greenson, Jamie Winter and Milani Smith, as well as Kristen Merkle of Vanderbilt University.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and an Autism Speaks postdoctoral fellowship awarded to Jones.

Read more here

New York Man Catches Autistic Girl Falling From Window

New York Man Catches Autistic Girl Falling From Window

A 7-year-old New York City girl escaped injury after she fell from a third-story window when she was caught by a neighbor.

Cell phone video taken by a resident in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn shows Keyla McCree standing on an air conditioning unit moments before she fell and landed in the bushes. Her dramatic fall was broken by the arms of Steven St. Bernard, who rushed to the scene and caught the girl.

“Please let me catch her, please let me catch her, that’s all I could say. Let me catch the little baby, that’s all,” said St. Bernard.

The 52-year-old bus driver and father of four told ABC News affiliate WABC that he was just in the right place at the right time.

“It feels good now to know that I did something,” said St. Bernard, who lives in the apartment complex.

Keyla, who is autistic, managed to perch herself on the air conditioner by pushing through one of the accordion pieces that holds the unit to the window while her mother was in the next room. Moments before she fell, McCree was seen dancing on the air conditioning unit. Police tell WABC they do not believe McCree’s parents  did anything criminal.

“She did hit the bushes and the ground a little, but not straight on because of his arms,” said witness Latasha Marcus.

St. Bernard tore a tendon in his left shoulder and was sporting a sling after the incident. As for Keyla, she’s doing just fine thanks to the man who certainly lived up to his name.

“I saw her in the hospital. She doesn’t have a scratch on her,” said St. Bernard.

This morning, friends and neighbors are calling St. Bernard a hero. “No. A hero is a sandwich. I just saw a kid, that’s it,” said St. Bernard.

link here

New Treatment for Irritability in Autism

ScienceDaily (May 31, 2012) — Autism is a developmental disorder that affects social and communication skills. Irritability is a symptom of autism that can complicate adjustment at home and other settings, and can manifest itself in aggression, tantrums, and self-injurious behavior. These disruptive behaviors are frequently observed in children with autism, which may considerably affect their ability to function at home or in school.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of acetaminophen (Tylenol) overdoses, but it may have other applications related to its effects in the brain. NAC helps maintain and restore glutathione, which play a key role in the antioxidant defense system. Additionally, cysteine as supplied by NAC treatment, stimulates a protein, the cystine-glutamate antiporter, resulting in the decrease of glutamatergic neurotransmission.

NAC has two resulting effects:


1) it may protect brain cells by raising the level of a protective antioxidant metabolite called glutathione, and


2) it may reduce the excitability of the glutamate system by stimulating inhibitory receptors.

These drug actions are important because, although the causes of autism are unknown, it is clear that there are many influencing factors and scientists are pursuing multiple hypotheses. Two in particular relate to NAC: one theory is that autism may be caused by an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants in the body; the other is that the glutamate system may be dysfunctional in individuals with autism.

These hypotheses led researchers at Stanford University and the Cleveland Clinic to conduct a pilot trial of NAC in children with autistic disorder. Children were randomized to receive either NAC or placebo daily for 12 weeks and their symptoms were evaluated four times during that period.
They found that irritability was significantly decreased in the children who received NAC. In addition, NAC was well-tolerated and caused minimal side effects....

Pilot Study Finds Promise for Autism in Antioxidant Therapy

By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 30, 2012

A new pilot study suggests a specific antioxidant supplement may be an effective therapy for some features ofautism.

Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital studied 31 children with the disorder.

The antioxidant, called N-Acetylcysteine, or NAC, effectively reduced irritability in children with autism and moderated repetitive behaviors. The researchers emphasized that the findings must be confirmed in a larger trial before NAC can be recommended for children with autism.

Irritability affects 60 to 70 percent of children with autism. “We’re not talking about mild things: This is throwing, kicking, hitting, the child needing to be restrained,” said Antonio Hardan, M.D., the primary author of the new study.

“It can affect learning, vocational activities and the child’s ability to participate in autism therapies.”

The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Stanford University is filing a patent for the use of NAC in autism, and one of the study authors has a financial stake in a company that makes and sells the NAC used in the trial.

More here...