Autism: Scientists take 'first steps' towards biological test
Scientists have taken the first steps towards what they say could become a new blood and urine test for autism. Their study tested children with and without the condition and found higher levels of protein damage in those with the disorder.
The researchers said the tests could lead ultimately to the earlier detection of the condition, which can be difficult to diagnose. But experts expressed caution, saying such a test was still a long way off.
[...] For this new study, published in the Molecular Autism journal, researchers looked for chemical differences in the blood and urine of 38 autistic children and 31 children without the condition, all aged between five and 12. In those with autism they found higher levels of protein damage - particularly in the blood plasma - which they said were associated with ill health.
Dr Naila Rabbani, from the University of Warwick, who led the study, told the BBC the tests could ultimately be used by doctors to diagnose autism earlier in childhood by detecting these markers.
Advanced glycation endproducts, dityrosine and arginine transporter dysfunction in autism - a source of biomarkers for clinical diagnosis (open, DOI: 10.1186/s13229-017-0183-3) (DX)
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:39AM (1 child)
Why go through all that invasive medical bullshit? Just show the patient a fight scene from DBZ, and if there's a positive reaction rather than crying, then a diagnosis of autism is confirmed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:33AM
He isn't trolling, he's finally sharing some of his personal wisdom.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:42AM (19 children)
If you haven't diagnosed Autism by age 5, it's not severe enough to matter - suck it up and deal with the curve life has thrown you.
If your kid's not talking, hand flapping, not making eye contact, etc. by age 4 and you haven't figured it out and started interventions yet, what rock were you hiding under for the last 15 years while the AWARENESS CAMPAIGN was going on?
F- the diagnosis aspects of this test, how about let's get to the root causes of the damaged proteins and see if there's any thing there that can actually alleviate symptoms, huh?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:48AM
Yeah, we knew long before the experts did and told THEM he was autistic: if you look down at your baby and and try to make eye contact and they turn their head away again and again.....
....either you are futt bugly or....
Generation A!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:51AM (5 children)
I was diagnosed at age 8 in the early 1990s when "autism" was only the very severe kind and not the "high-functioning" or "spectrum" kind. Not everyone shows obvious signs of autism at 4. High-functioning autism is often called a silent disorder because people just think that HFA people are normies that have easily fixable behavioral problems.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:34AM (1 child)
Lemme guess, one or both of your live-in parents had the money to afford that assessment.
If you had "real" autism, you wouldn't be posting that here. You'd be crinkled in the corner of the place you lived occasionally emerging to bark at the moon at 4am.
(Score: 3, Funny) by unauthorized on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:40AM
Well, I must be safe then, I bark at the moon every night but I only crinkle in the corner for special occasions!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:53PM (2 children)
I've never been diagnosed, or IQ tested, but if I were born 30 years later I would surely have been labeled Aspie, or maybe severe Aspie.
The problems aren't easily fixable (not even in normies are behavioral problems easily fixable), but... IMO, all the interventionalist hand holding "special" garb can make the situation for HFA worse.
I could have done with some awareness back in the 1980s, instead of being labeled a socially clueless moron freak genius. When you're out in 0.1% territory, it's easy to believe that you're absolutely alone, there's nobody else like you, when in fact there are thousands your age more or less just like you - they are just spread around the world and usually doing their best to not stick out, just blend in.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:57PM (1 child)
Yeah, i found it hard growing up thinking i was just 'weird' and clueless, and thinking "What is wrong with me".
When my son was born i started thinking "Hey! I'm frakking AUTISTIC!!! There's nothing 'wrong' with me, i'm just different", and that has helped me a lot.
Decades ago, i'd probably be labelled as "Eccentric".
My wife says i get stranger and stranger every day.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:54PM
The "A" light went on in my head in December of 1988 - watching the movie Rain Man first run in the theater - No, I can't count toothpicks as they fly out of a dropped box, or remember the entire phone book, but my "weirdness" runs in that direction from normal.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:59AM (6 children)
Easier said than done, right? Billions have been spent and all we got are these lousy anti-vaxers.
If any sort of effective intervention is possible, even if it isn't a cure, it needs to be done as early as possible. Which is why a test like this could come in handy. Although maybe we are just going to eventually march into mandatory full genome screening of every baby born in the U.S. once it becomes cheap enough. Done right, and it could save billions of dollars by informing preventative care. Or it could just become the worst privacy risk ever.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/03/weve-spent-1bn-on-autism-research-but-the-tangible-benefits-are-elusive [theguardian.com]
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11464144/autism-funding-services-biology [vox.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:31AM (1 child)
Preventative care? What's that, precious? Some sort of contraceptive?
Nope, won't fly. The publicly-funded health care will be defunded too.. in the name of liberty, you see?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @08:43AM
It's like preventative maintenance.
You know, reassigning the backup device to /dev/null and then powercycling the RAID about 25 times in quick succession.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:58PM (2 children)
Which is why I'm making fun of it... 5-12 is not early Dx.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 20 2018, @02:44PM (1 child)
they should confirm it works before they start drawing blood from 1 year olds xd
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @02:53PM
F- yeah they should, just like they should have been more careful rolling out HepC vaccines to newborns within an hour of birth, etc. etc. etc.
OTOH, 69 test subjects is basically nothing, and blood draws from a 1 year old are not unusual for other reasons.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:34PM
yeah, except all you have to do is not shoot your baby up with a bunch of fucking shots(or the mother: pitocin, etc.) like a dutiful slave and your kid probably won't have autism. i feel sorry for the people who never heard about concerns over vaccine safety, etc. but not suck-asses who do it to their own kids anyways because they're so modern and learned. Be sure and get your baby their slave number while you're at the state's baby damaging operation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:06AM (2 children)
Do you really believe that science can just skip past the early studies and jump straight to effective treatments?
If reliable biomarkers are found that have diagnostic value it will enable objective study of the earlier stages of the disorder. The biomarkers themselves might also have an etiologic role in the disease or may point to some underlying mechanism.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:56AM
Does seem to happen occasionally Moreso when new information comes to light:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/18/0244214 [soylentnews.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:56PM
With more than 2% of boys catching a diagnosis these days, I'd rather not wait 2 more generations while we "diagnose and collect information so we might begin to formulate a theory of a therapeutic approach." I'd much rather see a culture slide spoiled by some moldy bread and put it into practical application within 10 years or less.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:09PM (1 child)
A family member developed a severe form of autism after an (epileptic?) fit somewhere around a year old. He showed an immediate regression in verbalisation and situational awareness, and developed several mannerisms. Nevertheless, it was several years before he got a formal diagnosis because his symptoms didn't quite fit the textbook: he wasn't very panicked by a break in routine, for example, and empathised quite strongly. (We joked it was because he'd not read the textbook, so didn't know how he was meant to behave.)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:51PM
epileptic fit? 1 yr old? just another medical mystery... good thing it's not sky rocketing across "developed"(vaccinated and otherwise enslaved) nations. it's not from all the medical interventions parents foolishly allow the "medical" establishment to perform. seizure caused by the fallout from the vaccines. maybe the immune system attacks the brain from the biotrash(money viruses, etc) or adjuvant in the vaccine. maybe hospitals all have powerful unknown viruses floating around brain damaging kids but it's more likely to be in the shots b/c the body can usually defend itself until some dumb piece of shit bypasses the body's defenses by shooting some unknown deadly cocktail straight into the blood stream. like MS people get from their shitty, pesticide laced, sugar and carb powered diet causing permeability of the BBB. the immune system is likely just doing it's job in most of these cases. we just can't see the trash we are flooding the brain with. while the whores at the hospital play stupid and test for genetic reasons like we're all defective. time for the slaves to wake up.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:27AM
I'm just hoping that if/when cure for autism is finally found, it's administered as a vaccine.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by istartedi on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:56AM
I don't get some of the negativity being expressed here. Yes, you can tell ASD from behavior; but what *kind* of ASD? OK, Mr. Smarty Pants. Do you know if ASD behavior all comes from the same chemistry? Hey, guess what? Maybe it's a spectrum because various chemicals in the body are low or high in various ratios. Wouldn't it be nice to know how ASD actually works so we could treat it, or not treat it, or even just for the general knowledge of actually knowing more about what's going on in our bodies?
Twenty years from now, this kind of test could tell your doctor exactly which drug to give vs. the kind of things we do now where we just give kids drugs based on behavior.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @09:12AM (3 children)
Expect the results to disappear and never be talked about again, IF it turns out that it is caused by certain proteins being damaged by mercury.
No, I'm not saying vaccines cause this, there is mercury in a lot of things. Energy saving light bulbs and fish are two examples. But we have seen time and time again, that the powers that be will rather try to convince people that mercury is perfectly safe, than admit (even after switching to less poisonous materials) that putting mercury in vaccines was a really bad idea. Even though they have to be fully aware this this is what is fueling the entire anti-vaxxer movement.
(Score: 2) by Bobs on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:27PM
Ah, yes. Beware the dreaded mercury lobby, committed to polluting our vital essences.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @03:43PM (1 child)
"No, I'm not saying vaccines cause this..."
"... putting mercury in vaccines was a really bad idea."
Hmmmm, sounds exactly like what you're saying. It doesn't follow though, mercury should affect everyone who got vaccinated.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 20 2018, @04:10PM
Errrrmm...not everyone exposed to a virus gets sick. There are carriers and people with natural immunities.
Mercury might only 'activate' autism in certain individuals just like it seems that some people can smoke and not get cancer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Burns#Final_years_and_death [wikipedia.org]
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-some-smokers-get-lung/ [scientificamerican.com]
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Informative) by anubi on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:21PM
My guess is that this is like our other attributes... anatomical muscular variation, eye color, hair color, skin color, etc.
I have no doubt I would test positive for asperger. I do not consider it a disability, rather I see it as just an attribute.
It means I will derive pleasure from doing the stuff I like to do, and not need much "entertainment", as I will just find that boring.
About the only thing going 'round I wanna see is Shen Yun.
I am not a very social person, nor am I much in tune with "feelings", but I will place much concern over the details of my work. Its gotta be right. Some would call it OCD.
Yet it annoys me highly that a lot of stuff that comes into my life wasn't designed by someone like me. I find it maddening to see how much effort some people invested in such a sorry design were certain details weren't addressed properly.
Most of the stuff I get is OK, but things like not putting switch debouncing logic into my oscilloscope, so when I try to adjust the controls, they often do exactly opposite of what they should, to me, is just maddening. It would not have been that much more trouble to put in a couple of capacitors and a schmitt trigger to debounce the thing.
Or another thing about that lousy way the guys who built my oven made the thermocouple connection to the controller. Five years worth of thermal cycling and the connection becomes so noisy the CPU shuts the oven down. That thing should last damn near forever.
If its a disability, its that only in the eyes of those who hire me. If I am gonna do it, I want it done right.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]