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

本研究的目的是探索非药物治疗的高功能ASD患者外周血浆中的生物标志物。(实验1)对28例高功能ASD男性患者和28例匹配的对照组的血浆进行细胞因子和趋化因子的多重检测。经多项比较校正后，ASD患儿血浆IL-1β、IL-1RA、IL-5、IL-8、IL-12(P70)、IL-13、IL-17和Gro-α水平均显著高于对照组。与对照组相比，ASD患者的血浆谷氨酸水平较高，而血浆谷氨酰胺水平较低。经Logistic回归分析和判别分析，发现血浆谷氨酸和谷氨酰胺的两个值可区分ASD组和对照组，正确分型正确率为91%。结果表明，多重分析和血浆谷氨酸、谷氨酰胺水平的异常免疫反应可作为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.