Excerpt:
“The vagus nerve is capable of transporting tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) and provides a route of ascent from the intestinal tract to the CNS. This route bypasses TeNT’s normal preferential binding sites in the spinal cord, and therefore the symptoms of a typical tetanus infection are not evident. Once in the brain, TeNT disrupts the release of neurotransmitters by the proteolytic cleavage of synaptobrevin, a synaptic vesicle membrane protein. This inhibition of neurotransmitter release would explain a wide variety of behavioral deficits apparent in autism. Lab animals injected in the brain with TeNT have exhibited many of these behaviors. Some children with autism have also shown a significant reduction in stereotyped behaviors when treated with antimicrobials effective against intestinal clostridia.
“Conclusions. This clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization.”
Abstract
We determined the occurrence of gut mucosal damage using the intestinal permeability test in 21 autistic children who had no clinical and laboratory findings consistent with known intestinal disorders. An altered intestinal permeability was found in 9 of the 21 (43%) autistic patients, but in none of the 40 controls. Compared to the controls, these nine patients showed a similar mean mannitol recovery, but a significantly higher mean lactulose recovery (1.64% +/- 1.43 vs 0.38% +/- 0.14; P < 0.001). We speculate that an altered intestinal permeability could represent a possible mechanism for the increased passage through the gut mucosa of peptides derived from foods with subsequent behavioural abnormali
Exceprt:
” These results suggest that the IHg may be responsible for the increase in reactive glia.”
Excerpt:
“GFA in autism and autistic-like conditions was at a level almost three times that in the normal group. The results could implicate gliosis and unspecific brain damage in autism.”
Excerpt:
“In November 1989, IOM established the Committee to Review the Adverse Consequences of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines. The specific charge to the committee, as outlined in Section 312 of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, was to: identify and review all available medical and scientific literature on the nature, circumstance, and extent of the relationship, if any, between vaccines containing pertussis (including whole cells, extracts, and specific antigens) and the following illnesses and conditions: hemolytic anemia, hypsarrhythmia, infantile spasms, Reye syndrome, peripheral mononeuropathy, deaths classified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), aseptic meningitis, juvenile diabetes, autism, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and other such illnesses as recommended by the committee or the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines”
“Summary
No data were identified that address the question of a relation between vaccination with DPT or its pertussis component and autism. There are no experimental data bearing on a possible biologic mechanism.
Conclusion
There is no evidence to indicate a causal relation between DPT vaccine or the pertussis component of DPT vaccine and autism.”
Excerpts:
“These data clearly indicate that brain half-life is considerably longer than blood half-life in the monkey under conditions of chronic dosing.”
Excerpt:
“The results indicate the existence of a cell-mediated immune response to brain tissue in the syndrome of autism.”
Abstract
The appreciation of the existence of a brain disorder as encapsulated in early childhood autism has only come to the fore in recent years. Possibly for this reason, there is no apparent agreement as to which of the symptoms of the disorder, namely emotional disturbances or cognitive defects, are primary, and which are secondary. Nor is there yet either a generally accepted medical treatment or a coherent neurochemical theory of autism. In this article, Jaak Panksepp puts forward the idea that autism is an emotional disturbance arising from an upset in the opiate systems in the brain, and hence proposes, as a possibility, opiate antagonist therapy for the autistic syndrome.
Abstract
The etiology of autism is unknown, but autism has been associated with a number of diseases, including prenatal rubella. Rubella vaccine challenge was used in an attempt to retrospectively diagnose prenatal rubella in autistic children. This test was selected because unresponsiveness of antibody titer has been reported as helpful in retrospective diagnosing of prenatal rubella. Fifteen autistic children and 8 controls matched for age were challenged with rubella vaccine. Rubella vaccine challenge did not differentiate autistic children from the control subjects. However, 5 of 13 autistic children had undetectable titers despite previous vaccine; all control subjects had detectable titers. This finding of undetectable titers in autistic children suggests these children may have an altered immune response.