Possible Immunological Disorders in Autism: Concomitant Autoimmunity and Immune Tolerance

^1,3Maha I. Sh. Kawashti, ²Omnia R. Amin ³Nadia G. Rowehy

¹Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine (For Girls), Al Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, ²Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt and ³Serology Lab King Fahad General Hospital, Jeddah, K.S.A.

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that affect children early in their life. Immunological disorders is one of several contributing factors that have been suggested to cause autism. Thirty autistic children aged 3-6 years and thirty non-autistic psychologically-free siblings were studied. Circulating IgA and IgG autoantibodies to casein and gluten dietary proteins were detected by enzyme-immunoassays (EIA). Circulating IgG antibodies to measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (M.M.R) and cytomeglovirus were investigated by EIA. Results revealed high seropositivity for autoantibodies to casein and gluten: 83.3% and 50% respectively in autistic children as compared to 10% and 6.7% positivity in the control group. Surprisingly, circulating anti-measles, anti-mumps and anti-rubella IgG were positive in only 50%, 73.3% and 53.3% respectively as compared to 100% positivity in the control group. Anti-CMV IgG was positive in 43.3% of the autistic children as compared to 7% in the control group. It is concluded that, autoimmune response to dietary proteins and deficient immune response to measles, mumps and rubella vaccine antigens might be associated with autism, as a leading cause or a resulting event. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.