A study on the development of biological "veryearly"diagnosis of autism

本研究的目的是探索高功能ASD患者外周血浆样本中的生物学标志物。（实验1）对来自患有高功能ASD的男性受试者（n = 28）和匹配对照（n = 28）的血浆样品应用细胞因子和趋化因子的多重测定。在总共检测的48种分析物中，经多重比较校正后，ASD受试者的IL-1β、IL-1 RA、IL-5、IL-8、IL-12（p70）、IL-13、IL-17和GRO-α的血浆浓度显著高于匹配对照组的相应值。（实验二）采用高效液相色谱法测定了23例男性ASD患儿和22例正常对照组血浆中25种氨基酸的含量。与对照组相比，ASD患者血浆谷氨酸水平较高，血浆谷氨酰胺水平较低。应用Logistic回归判别分析，结果表明，血浆谷氨酸和谷氨酰胺水平可作为ASD患者与正常对照组的判别指标，其正确分类率为91%，提示多种免疫反应异常和血浆谷氨酸和谷氨酰胺水平可作为ASD的生物学标志。

The aim of the study was to explore biological markers in peripheral plasmasamples from non-medicated subjects with high-functioning ASD.(Experiment 1) A multiplex assay for cytokines and chemokines was applied to plasma samples frommale subjects with high-functioning ASD (n = 28) and matched controls (n = 28). Among a total of 48 analytes examined, theplasma concentrations of IL-1β, IL-1RA, IL-5, IL-8, IL-12(p70), IL-13, IL-17 and GRO-αwere significantly higher in subjects withASD compared with the corresponding values of matched controls after correction for multiple comparisons.(Experiment 2) Plasma levels of 25 amino acids in male children (n= 23) with ASDand matchedcontrols (n= 22) were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. Compared with controls, subjects with ASD showed higher levels of plasmaglutamate and lower levels of plasma glutamine. Using discriminantanalysis with logistic regression, the two values of plasma glutamate and glutamine were shown to differentiate theASDgroup from the control group; the rate of correct classification was 91%.Theseresults suggest that abnormal immune responses as assessed by multiplex analysis and plasma glutamate and glutamine levelsmay serve as the biological markers for ASD.