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posted by chromas on Friday May 31 2019, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-about-a-nice-fecal-transplant? dept.

Research Confirms Gut-Brain Connection in Autism:

People with autism often suffer from gut problems, but nobody has known why. Researchers have now discovered the same gene mutations – found both in the brain and the gut – could be the cause.

The discovery confirms a gut-brain nervous system link in autism, opening a new direction in the search for potential treatments that could ease behavioural issues associated with autism by targeting the gut.

Chief Investigator Associate Professor Elisa Hill-Yardin, RMIT University, said scientists trying to understand autism have long been looking in the brain, but the links with the gut nervous system have only been recently explored.

“We know the brain and gut share many of the same neurons and now for the first time we’ve confirmed that they also share autism-related gene mutations,” Hill-Yardin said.

“Up to 90% of people with autism suffer from gut issues, which can have a significant impact on daily life for them and their families.

“Our findings suggest these gastrointestinal problems may stem from the same mutations in genes that are responsible for brain and behavioural issues in autism.

“It’s a whole new way of thinking about it - for clinicians, families and researchers - and it broadens our horizons in the search for treatments to improve the quality of life for people with autism.”

Journal Reference:
Suzanne Hosie, et. al.. Gastrointestinal dysfunction in patients and mice expressing the autism‐associated R451C mutation in neuroligin‐3. Autism Research, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/AUR.2127


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by choose another one on Friday May 31 2019, @09:36AM (3 children)

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 31 2019, @09:36AM (#849719)

    Yep he did a lot of work on gut disorders and links to autism, he also found a lot of vaccine-strain measles in gut biopsies.

    If he'd left it there he'd still be working with reputation intact, but he insisted on jumping to "vaccine causes autism" based, essentially, on no more than what I've just said above.

    Correlation and causation, he'd heard of them, but like many failed scientists he'd forgotten which comes first...

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 31 2019, @06:22PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday May 31 2019, @06:22PM (#849905) Journal

    He was trying to make a quick buck. He knew perfectly well that what he was saying was bullshit.

  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday May 31 2019, @07:48PM (1 child)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Friday May 31 2019, @07:48PM (#849940)

    I just found it interesting how this paper set off the whole controversy, but when I read over it, I couldn't find any obvious references to vaccination in it.

    "This scientist found a link between vaccines and autism!"
    "Ok, where?"
    "This Facebook post!"
    "Ok, what is that Facebook post talking about?"
    "This magazine article!"
    "Ok, that refers to research. Where's the research paper itself?"
    "Right here!"
    "What here talks about vaccines? It sounds more like it's talking about autism and gastrointestinal problems."
    "Uh ..."

    On the other hand, it does seem like people on the spectrum lean a lot towards simple fried foods and/or unvarying diets. They say it's a "texture" thing, but I wonder if gastrointestinal distress correlates more closely to what's going on with them.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @06:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 01 2019, @06:36PM (#850238)

      That is the genius of the paper and his plan. A group that was suing an MMR-vaccine manufacturer approached him and offered him a ton of money to be an expert witness. So to increase credibility, he used the paper to try to suggest a link from MMR -> latent measles infection -> gastroenterology issues -> autism. After it was accepted by the Lancet, he held a press conference (paid for by a shell group for the plaintiffs) where he lambasted the connection. The problem was press conference went way beyond the conclusions of the paper (as he got away from himself during the event), and is what originally rose people's suspicions. Of course, by the time the whole unreproducibility and bias was proven, the whole vaccine-causes-autism thing was out of the bag and had a life of its own.