Toward A Long-sought Saliva Test For Autism

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ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2009) — Researchers in Italy are reporting discovery of abnormal proteins in the saliva of autism patients that could eventually provide a clue for the molecular basis of this severe developmental disorder and could be used as a biomarker for a subgroup of patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Autism involves social withdrawal, impaired emotional responses and communication skills, and other symptoms. With no laboratory test available, scientists are searching for biomarkers such as abnormal proteins that appear in the body fluids of individuals with autism that may provide a way to accurately diagnose autism and track its response to potential treatments.

Massimo Castagnola, Irene Messana, Maria Giulia Torrioli and Fiorella Gurrieri, compared proteins in the saliva of 27 children with ASD to those in a control group without ASD. They discovered that at least one of four proteins in 19 children in the ASD group had significantly lower levels of phosphorylation. That key body process activates proteins so that they can work normally.

The results suggest that these abnormal proteins might be the clue for anomalies in the phosphorylation of proteins involved in development of central nervous



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 095427.htm

They're coming to take me away hehe hoho haha to the funny farm, and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white shirts...

Conversely, maybe these proteins may hold clues to the cause and/or cure of the syndrome.

... to the happy home, with trees and flowers and chirping birds, and basket weavers that twiddle their thumbs...

(Sorry, couldn't resist)


Seriously, this type of test would be a significant development, if it pans out. Thank you Merle for posting it.

Be interesting to know if this applies to all forms of autism.

Am loving the Karma avatar Sinsboldy.

It's good to see that there are currently a number of potential avenues for objective laboratory type diagnosis for ASDs. The sooner diagnosis is removed from the subjective realm of diagnosticians stereotyping (the quality of which vastly differs between individual diagnosticians), the better for all.

I find the less than 100% inclusion in such a small sample size a little less hopeful although potentially alternative protein markers might be discovered such that there is a range of markers that between would identify all persons with an ASD.

The study entailing visual acuity results where 100% of the ASD sample could be distinguished both from the population at large and the control sample used in the study looks more promising, as does a study that found consistent delays in audio processing (and was able to correlate the extent of delay with severity of symptoms).

The visual acuity results however are especially promising if they can be recreated using a larger sample because testing visual acuity is cheap and many countries carry out testing of pre-schoolers where an eye acuity screening for AS could be easily implemented as part of the standard testing. The biggest problem is that it offers no solution for testing/diagnosing persons with non-correctable visual impairment.

All things considered, there seems to currently be a number of avenues for potential future objective screening and/or diagnosis of those with ASDs, and a comprehensive test, or range of tests that are comprehensive between them, cannot come soon enough in my opinion.

I had never heard of this before, ( its cheapness is probably why ), but I went and looked it up, ( googled Autism and "Visual Acuity" ). You mean the study by Emma Ashwin? It is really interesting, as you say.

Both my son and I have hyper clear/sharp vision, and I have known this about myself since I took an eye test in school and kept identifying colour changes, ( in very small light spots seen through a viewer ), before anyone else did, and before the professional giving the test thought that it was possible/likely for someone to detect the change.

.

Here it comes .....
I've been reading a cracking book by Oliver Sacks, and as I read about William's Syndrome, I knew it's just a matter of time until we too are reduced to a gene stereotype. Which will blow away the bloody curebies once and for all. But it means a pre natal test being made available for those fashionable NT mommies-to-be so they can be spared the horrors of having a child that's GASP autistic.

I think of that movie "Idiotocracy" where the future is full of stupid NTs because they're weeded out all of us who are 'different'.

Yes I do mean that study (had to go check to be sure before I could confirm though, as I am hopeless at remembering names)...


I'm short-sighted now, but as a child I would read the bottom line when we had eye-tests done (part of a nationwide thing where every so many years kids have their eyes and hearing tested) and the lady (it was always a lady) would be surprised.

Last time I got my glasses changed, the eye-examiner asked me to look at a a card-sheet (held at a particular distance from my face) and to read out the line that was the smallest text I could see. She was quite surprised and stated outright that it was exceptional for someone to be able to read the text at that size/distance.

when I was 16 and went in for my driver's licience, I remember the old lady behind the counter gasp when I did the eye test for peripheral vision.

Merle

Merle

I'd love that. If an actual, infallible test existed to prove aspergers then anytime I met a doctor who told me I didn't have it I could just go...

"Oh yeah?"
*spit*
"Test that."

I love that it's spit. That really makes my relationship with my doctors all the more satisfying.