Autism, XMRV and vaccines

[lumberjack_jeff]

http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthread.php?646-Autism-and-XMRV

Autism and XMRV
Is Autism Associated with A Viral Infection?

Last week, researchers from the University of Nevada, the National Cancer Institute and The Cleveland Clinic announced the startling discovery of antibodies to a little known retrovirus in 95% of patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a debilitating neuro-immune disease impacting more than a million people in the United States.

The finding, published in the highly respected journal Science, "clearly points to the retrovirus as a significant contributing factor in this illness," said lead author Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., director of research for the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, which is affiliated with the University of Nevada, Reno. It was the first study to isolate particles of the retrovirus, XMRV, in human blood and demonstrate that it is transmitted between blood cells. XMRV was first discovered in prostate cancer tissue of men with certain genetic defects. Like the more well-known retrovirus, HIV, this pathogen is blood-borne, and not transmitted through the air.

The findings have potential significance for a number of other disorders including, it turns out, autism.

Researchers tested blood samples from a "small group of children" with autism and found that 40% of them were positive for XMRV, according to a statement from the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders. More testing is underway which, the Commission said, "could dramatically increase that 40% positive finding." (Given the small sample size, such a statement is purely speculative).

As Dr. Mikovits explained to a television news program in Nevada, "It is not in the paper and not reported, but we have actually done some of these studies (in ASD children) and found the virus in a significant number of samples that we have tested for. It could be linked to a number of neuro-immune diseases, including autism. It certainly won't be all, because there are genetic defects that result in autism. But there are also the environmental effects; there is always the hypothesis that, 'My child was fine and then they got sick, and then they got autism.'"

According to Dr. Mikovits, XMRV (which admittedly sounds like a satellite radio system for your Winnebago) can lie dormant in people, until it is "turned on or off" by other factors, such as stress hormones like cortisol, or in response to the presence of inflammatory "cytokines," protein molecules secreted by immune cells to help regulate the immune system.

And then Dr. Mikovits dropped a bombshell that is sure to spark controversy.

"On that note, if I might speculate a little bit," she said, "This might even explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children, because these viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune response cells, the B and the T cells. So when you give a vaccine, you send your B and T cells in your immune system into overdrive. That's its job. Well, if you are harboring one virus, and you replicate it a whole bunch, you've now broken the balance between the immune response and the virus. So you have had the underlying virus, and then amplified it with that vaccine, and then set off the disease, such that your immune system could no longer control other infections, and created an immune deficiency."

[pnwmom]

1. Interesting. Sounds like a promising line of research.

And points again to a difficulty in autism research in general -- that the underlying cause or causes are quite possibly different in different children.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Of course Big Pharma will make sure to draw and quarter Dr. Mikovits...immediately.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. If that were true...

then there would be a link between vaccines and autism, and it's been shown over and over again that there is not.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. An environmental trigger exists.

It is strongly suggested that *thimerosal* is not it, beyond that is speculation.

Vaccines are not ruled out.

[Igel]

15. For some cases, it is.

When the syndrome is diagnosable at 0;3.

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. An environmental trigger could be present during pregnancy.

There are only three possible answers;
a) genetic
b) environmental
c) a combination

It's an epidemic, (occurrence has increased over time to a degree which cannot be explained by changing diagnoses) so it's clearly not a)
There are genetic differences among many if not most of those with the syndrome, so it's not B)

That leaves c, and the prenatal environment doesn't preclude any potential triggers.

[HuckleB]

17. You're going with a very large assumption.

Yes, it's an assumption that many people want to make, and they typically try to make it by using selective research and ignoring the great difficulty in comparing eras for such disorders, but it's not intellectually honest to make that assumption wholeheartedly at this point in time.

Some further discussion on the matter...

--------------------

The Increase in Autism Diagnoses: Two Hypotheses
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=95

(Quite a few links at that one, as well as a good explanation of the difficulties with epidemiology of such changing diagnoses. Note: More good links in the discussion.)

--------------------

This study notes clusters, but doesn't see an environmental cause. (And, yes, it's just one study.)

Autism Clusters Found: areas with high incidence of autistic children
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2010/01/autism-clusters-found-areas-with-high-incidence-of-autistic-children/#ixzz0d6qHDjk4

--------------------

Epidemiology and Possible Causes of Autism
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/465861


Cheers...

[The Straight Story]

4. Can someone pass the salt and butter?

:popcorn:

[AngryAmish]

7. This is gonna be huge

I can't stand the anti-vax nutters. And the connection is pure speculation. But there is no reason not to look at it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. "no reason not to look at it"

The unrec brigade appears to disagree.

There is demonstrably an environmental trigger, and no potential vectors should be considered off the table.

[SidDithers]

5. If the Dr. believes a vaccine could trigger autism by activating the immune response...

wouldn't exposure to any disease do the same?

Sid

[Robb]

6. You'd think so.

Although vaccines are specifically designed to trigger the response, IIRC in a more hale and hearty fashion than mild infections would. :shrug:

[trotsky]

12. Of the vaccine-preventable diseases...

there aren't many that only cause "mild infection." Varicella is about it, and even that has its fatalities.

[pnwmom]

8. The degree of immune response is the significant thing here.

In susceptible people, a vaccine, especially with an adjuvant designed to increase an immune response, or multiple vaccines at the same time, could -- as the researcher says -- put the immune system into "overdrive" (as compared to exposure to an ordinary virus.)

The same thing happens with allergies. Someone might not react to cat fur or to red wine -- but expose them to both at the same time and they have an allergic reaction. The body can handle only so much exposure to an allergen before it reacts.

[HuckleB]

11. First replicate the study, then go from there for ME/CFS, if there is a there to go toward.

We're talking correlation, at this point, anyway.

As for the unpublished autism connection, I'm not sure why we're discussing that at DU. It's just another David Kirby, HuffPo hit piece. Theories are a dime a dozen on such matters, and there's no real point in wasting time on it, unless actual studies bring evidence to the table.

[trotsky]

13. Aw, that's nothing.

Nearly 100% of children with autism have ridden in car seats. BAN THEM NOW GODAMMIT BIG CAR SEAT!

[Tumbulu]

18. I actually think that rear facing car seats which

isolate the infant in the backseat with no one to interact with them may be contributing to some malaise, not sure what.....

But you can't say that 100% of autistic children have ridden in a carseat. What about all the urban people who take trains and busses and other public transportation. What about people in other countries that don't use car seats?

[trotsky]

19. Uh, you kinda missed the whole point. n/t

[HuckleB]

14. One study. Two studies. Three studies. Four.

Study shows lower autism rate in vaccinated kids

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2009/12/study-shows-lower-autism-rate-in-vaccinated-kids/

[Jim__]

20. 40% positive for the virus ...

... I'd love to know what the percentage is for non-autistic children.

Sounds like an interesting possibility.