If You Assume the Risk Then You Must Accept the Outcome

Autism and Immunization

The frustration of dealing with a difficult or wayward child can be almost as painful as the suffering of the child itself. How much the child suffers may be almost impossible to calculate, but a parent who must rear such a child may have self-recriminations of immense proportions. When the true cause of the deviation of an offspring from normal is known, at least one facet of parental suffering may be eased; guilt. The extent to which such knowledge can alleviate this guilt depends on each individual, but it is important that research into this knowledge continue for this and many other reasons.

How many parents have blamed themselves for the supposed creation of autistic children? In the past children with mental deviations like this were considered to be the fruit of inbreeding, parental disease, demonic possession, etc. More recently, genes and environmental factors have been suspected of playing a role. Yet, today the true cause of autism is still largely unknown. Perhaps one recent discovery, based on the concept that environmental factors are likely to be involved, may help lead us out of this abyss. In the October 1998 issue of Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology researchers Singh, Yang, and Lin from the University of Michigan's College of Pharmacy may have begun to shed some light on this unfortunate condition. They found that autistic children who had been exposed to certain viruses in the past showed unusually high levels of antibodies to the proteins in their brains.

Since one theory of the etiology of autism is related to early exposure to viruses, these researchers seized on this finding. The concept has been that antibodies produced to protect against a virus may also manage to attack the tissues of the body under siege. An analogy might be the use of biological weapons meant to destroy the enemy resulting in death and destruction in the country of origin itself: How stupidly lacking in foresight in the world of warfare! How sad in our fight to survive! This concept of illness due to our own defenses turned upon ourselves is known as autoimmune disease, and is believed responsible for such entities as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and numerous other mysterious entities.

These authors compared 48 autistic children to 34 normal children and adults by measuring levels of antibodies to the viruses of measles and human herpesvirus-6 in the blood. They chose these two because they are often used when studying other autoimmune diseases. These findings were then compared to levels of two antibodies to brain tissue. The first was anti-MBP, which may attack a protein in the protective sheaths around nerve fibers in the brain called myelin basic protein. The second was anti-NAFP that similarly may attack neuron-axon filament protein, which actually makes up the nerve fibers themselves.

No one expected the autistic children to have higher levels of the antibodies in the blood. This was true, but for some reason the majority of the autistic children who had virus antibodies in the blood also had autoantibodies in the brain. The higher the blood level, the higher the brain level. On the other hand, no normal individuals had any brain autoantibodies. Measles was apparently the greatest offending agent.

Now we have the big question. If we are routinely protecting children from diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus with immunization, what role could this play in creating autistic children? The authors verified one important fact, almost all of their autistic patients had been immunized and none ever had measles unless it was so mild as to be undetected. In the past, no scientific studies have shown a link between vaccines and autism. Could this be the first?