Elevated Immune Response in the Brain of Autistic Patients

By Xiaohong Li, A. Chauhan, A. Sheikh, Sangita B. Patil, M. Malik. Journal of Neuroimmunology, 2009

768 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study determined immune activities in the brain of ASD patients and matched normal subjects by examining cytokines in the brain tissue. Our results showed that proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6 and GM-CSF), Th1 cytokine (IFN-γ) and chemokine (IL-8) were significantly increased in the brains of ASD patients compared with the controls. However the Th2 cytokines (IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10) showed no significant difference. The Th1/Th2 ratio was also significantly increased in ASD patients. Conclusion: ASD patients displayed an increased innate and adaptive immune response through the Th1 pathway, suggesting that localized brain inflammation and autoimmune disorder may be involved in the pathogenesis of ASD.

Subfields: Biological Psychiatry, Cognitive Neuroscience, Genetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/60c0a8cd8afb8611b158ddbde6e4a4bff9b360f0

How researchers see this paper

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. John T. Morgan
2. Eric Courchesne
3. Charity E. Onore
4. M. Careaga
5. P. Ashwood
6. Geraldine Dawson

In Genetics

1. Eric Courchesne
2. Charity E. Onore
3. M. Careaga
4. P. Ashwood
5. Geraldine Dawson

Citations in the corpus

• Microglial activation and increased microglial density observed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in autism. (2010, background): “Seizure history was correlated with age [r(11)”
• Elevated plasma cytokines in autism spectrum disorders provide evidence of immune dysfunction and are associated with impaired behavioral outcome (2010, background): “creased IL-8 levels, a chemoattractant cytokine important in inflammatory process, a finding that corresponds to similar increases of IL-8 seen in the brain and CSF of individuals with ASD (Vargas et al., 2005; Li et al., 2009).”
• The role of immune dysfunction in the pathophysiology of autism (2011, positive): “While elevated numbers of splenic TH17 cells have been observed in offspring after maternal poly(I:C) exposure (Mandal et al., 2011).”