When Autism Gene Research Hurts
By Teresa Conrick
I wrote about SPARK a few years back , and this is the description from their site -- the “Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge,’ and the mission is simple: we want to speed up research and advance our understanding of autism to help improve lives.” How and why is gene-hunting research STILL a “thing” in autism? We went from Dr. Leo Kanner, in 1943, bashing parents as “frosty,”---- to cold, unfeeling, “Refrigerator Mothers,” in 1967, with the fraud, Bettleheim,----- and then autism made its debut in the DSM of 1980, a horrible move as it is NOT psychiatric,---- and then the popularity of gene-hunting for autism in the 1990’s …..and it has been stuck there for too long! It is so frustrating to read obsolete research from scientists that is just plain irrelevant and then confusing parents, thinking that it is new, or helpful. It is neither. But they may not know any better so let’s help them out. I think it is important to look at patterns, as that can help us find solutions.
There is rapid, and I mean lighting speed research coming out, that is showing that the hot spot of autism is not in a gene hunt, and thus not GENETIC. What study after study IS showing is that we are living in a world now that is producing very impaired microbiomes and seeing increases in these regressive disorders like Autism, Parkinson’s, ALS, Altzheimer’s, Schizophrenia, Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Cancer, and ever- increasing numbers of autoimmune diseases. There are different avenues to succumb to these diseases, but the common denominator is that the gut microbiome is impacting the brain, the immune system and genes. The issue with genes seems to be that these gut microbes are actually causing GENE EXPRESSION to happen. This is a good example:
Alterations in gut microbiome composition have an emerging role in health and disease including brain function and behavior. Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) like propionic (PPA), and butyric acid (BA), which are present in diet and are fermentation products of many gastrointestinal bacteria, are showing increasing importance in host health, but also may be environmental contributors in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorders (ASD)....PPA and BA induced broad alterations in gene expression including neurotransmitter systems, neuronal cell adhesion molecules, inflammation, oxidative stress, lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function, all of which have been implicated in ASD. In conclusion, our data are consistent with a molecular mechanism through which gut related environmental signals such as increased levels of SCFA's can epigenetically modulate cell function further supporting their role as environmental contributors to ASD.
And this:
….mice colonized with human ASD microbiota also showed altered gene expression in their brains and differences in the types of metabolites present (metabolites are the molecules produced as byproducts of digestion and microbial metabolism). Two metabolites in particular were found in lower amounts in these mice: 5-aminovaleric acid (5AV) and taurine.
This recent and exciting study is on ALS, but its concepts and conclusions add to this medical phenomenon --- bacterial metabolites causing gene expression:
How does the Akkermansia alter the progression of ALS in the mouse? Like other gut-brain findings, the team suggest a link to the production of small molecules by the bacteria. They honed in on one—nicotinamide (NAM) which was able, when given alone, to enter the bloodstream of the mice from the gut and alter gene expression in the brain. The genes that were altered, as measured by RNA-seq, were involved in mediating oxidative damage and mitochondrial functionality.
To envision this in autism, follow this description:
The human gut microbiota may be viewed upon as an organ [70] and contributes to the digestion of food and the breakdown of toxins and drugs, regulates lipid and glucose metabolism, plays a fundamental role in the induction, training and function of the host immune system, modulates gene expression, and reduces inflammation [70]. In addition, 20%–40% of the small molecules in the peripheral blood are microbial metabolites, many of which have profound effects on CNS development and function [31]. Although there are numerous diseases that have been linked to dysbiosis of gut bacteria, it is critical for future studies to distinguish whether dysbiosis is the cause or the result of these diseases, as it determines how intervention strategies would develop. Prebiotics and probiotics have been widely used to treat some diseases, and they have shown great benefits to human health. In some cases, the change of a single bacterial species plays a key role on disease development, while in other cases dysbiosis of multiple species (microbiota composition) underlies the diseases.
Seeing that connection, follow this line of research as it has not been done in autism but I am hopeful someone will see these connections and DO IT for our children…..
University of Alberta researchers have identified a unique biological marker that can be used to identify the presence of the rare autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis, predict the course of the disease and identify new, personalized treatments.
In a study published in the journal Metabolomics, neurologist Zaeem Siddiqi, graduate student Derrick Blackmore and their team used metabolic analysis of serum (blood with all cells removed) to find a unique pattern of metabolites--products of the body's metabolic processes such as amino acids, vitamins or antioxidants--that is specific to myasthenia gravis…..Siddiqi and his team first compared the serum of patients with myasthenia gravis to a healthy control group. They then performed a comparison of serum from myasthenia patients to serum from rheumatoid arthritis, another autoimmune disease. After identifying more than 10,000 compounds in the serum samples, they found a unique pattern of 12 metabolites exclusive to patients with myasthenia gravis.
This though, has autism all over it. And the conclusion:
Moreover, the host health consists of two aspects: the physiological health and the psychological health. Recently, numerous findings have supported that the gut microbiota participates in almost all of the host health issues, whereas the relationship between the gut bacteria and the psychological conditions is still limited. Thus, more attention should be paid on this area. For instance, children with ASDs who have gastrointestinal disorders may present with behavioural manifestations [76–78], and in the near future, the gut microbiota might become the new ID of each patient with disorders of psychology……..Meanwhile, identification of gut bacteria-derived molecules would greatly facilitate the treatment of these diseases.
That is what we need. Treatment of these diseases.
That is a big discovery. This next one about gene expression is extremely alarming, yet for parents who have very affected children with an autism diagnosis, it explains so much. It also shows that the world needs to wake up to the fact that autism is not a cute diagnosis, that lights up our April. Our children can be very ill: Transcriptomic metaanalyses of autistic brains reveals shared gene expression and biological pathway abnormalities with cancer
Epidemiological and clinical evidence points to cancer as a comorbidity in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). ...
Comparisons of ASD and cancer differential gene expression meta-analysis results suggest that brain, kidney, thyroid, and pancreatic cancers are candidates for direct comorbid associations with ASD …..
That is sobering and sad. The evidence keeps mounting that again, the microbiome is involved .
If we can stop this process by treating the gut, changing the microbiome in autism, hopefully we can change the fate for those with an autism diagnosis. Health issues, immune dysfunction, neuropsychiatric behaviors and cancer trajectories could be reversed. Will SPARK be doing that?
Instead of looking for “autism genes,” and claiming that gene mutations are the cause , science is really showing that mutations in the gut population and missing species of bacteria are often the clues that need investigation. Treatments are meaningful in microbiome research. Gene-hunting had their turn. Enough.
Continued... Butyrate also inhibits histone deacetylase activity (HDAC) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12840228 Social deficits in Shank3-deficient mouse models of autism are rescued by histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition. β-catenin, a Shank3-binding protein that regulates cell adhesion and transcription, was increased in Shank3-deficient mice, which induced HDAC2 upregulation and social deficits. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29531362
There are 4 classes of HDACs. Class I (HDACs1, 2, 3 and 8), II (IIA 4, 5, 7 and 9; and IIB 6 and 10), IV (HDAC 11) are Zn2+-dependent (Zinc) while class III is NAD+-dependent (sirtuins 1–7) https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/11/2/148
All tested mercurials (Mercury) inhibited the uptake of butyrate significantly (> 40%), with p-chloromercuribenzoate (pCMB) showing the greatest inhibition (60%). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2230813/
A single-round (3-day) treatment with MS-275, an anti-cancer agent in clinical trials and a potent, long-lasting and frontal cortex-selective HDAC inhibitor, leads to dramatic rescue of autism-like social deficits. The therapeutic effect of MS-275 lasts for more than 10 days during the juvenile to late adolescent period, a critical developmental stage for social and communication skills, making it highly promising for clinical usage https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6006368/
Another epigenetic anti-cancer drug called romidepsin is a highly potent HDAC inhibitor. They treated mice deficient in the Shank 3 gene with a low dose of the drug for three days and found that gene function and expression were restored, and the social deficits were completely reversed. The drug successfully diminished the effects of HDAC2, which loosened the chromatin, allowing transcriptional mechanisms to restore gene expression. The drug’s effect lasted about three weeks, which is the period of juvenility to late adolescence in mice. This equates to several years when compared to human development – a period of time that is crucial to the development of communication and social skills. Upon further genome-wide screening, the team found that treatment with romidepsin was extensively effective at restoring the function to more than 200 genes that were previously silenced by autism https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/social-deficits-of-autism-reversed-by-epigenetic-drug/ histone deacetylase inhibitors sodium butyrate and trichostatin A were able to increase up-regulation of oxytocin receptor and vasopressin V1a receptor https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23727821/
Posted by: David L | September 12, 2020 at 10:38 AM
Continued from 1st msg below...
Many genetic variants have been linked to autism, but only a handful are potent enough to induce the disorder on their own. Among these variants, mutations in a gene called Shank3 are among the most common which accounts for around 2% of all ASD cases. Shank3 knockout mice show the triad of core ASD symptoms. In 2014, it was first found that a loss of synaptic Shank3 comparable to that observed in Shank3 knock-out mice was detected in immunohistochemical and biochemical analyses of zinc deficient animals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24277719 So someone with a zinc deficiency would experience the same problems as someone with the rarer Shank3 mutation problems and links many environmental factors to genetic causes. Zinc shapes the properties of developing synapses via Shank proteins.
It is also interesting to note that the application of known pro-inflammatory stressors, such as the metal-neurotoxin aluminum sulfate to human neuronal–glial cells in primary culture resulted in a significant decrease in the expression of Shank3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5732231/ In line with this, they have reported expression of SHANK3 in human gut enterocytes, where SHANK3 was functionally linked to zinc transporter levels mediating Zinc absorption. They demonstrated that especially ZIP4 exists in a complex with SHANK3. Zip2 and Zip4 proteins act as key players of zinc absorption in enterocytes. Low enterocytic SHANK3 levels result in diminished Zinc transporter levels that could eventually explain reduced Zinc concentrations in tissues and organs https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28345660/
A study found a previously unknown relatively high prevalence of zinc deficiency among low-income African American and Hispanic children in Atlanta, Georgia (the location of the cdr mmr study) with a 4-fold greater prevalence in the African American cohort. African American race-ethnicity was associated with zinc deficiency. The prevalence of zinc deficiency and anemia was high in this population of low-income minority children, especially among African Americans in low-income African American and Hispanic children in urban Atlanta, Georgia. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20147474/ The main vaccine actually studied with regard to autism is MMR, and a senior CDC scientist William Thompson claims the CDC did find an increased rate of autism after MMR in african american boys in the only MMR/autism study ever conducted by the CDC with American children.
Blacks (africans) have a reduced genetic zinc uptake which may have been advantageous to have in sub saharan africa as it skews their immune system toward a B cell TH2 antibody response that helps protect against a local parasitic worm, but then puts them at greater risk to viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and Measles as this shift of Th(1) to Th(2) function from a zinc deficiency results in cell-mediated (innate) immune dysfunction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fix3TEBotsw Research showing extreme differences in allele frequency between West Africans and Eurasians were observed for a leucine-to-valine substitution (Leu372Val) in the human intestinal zinc uptake transporter, ZIP4. Zinc regulation may differ among modern human populations, a finding that may have implications for health research. Further, we speculate that reduced zinc uptake mediated by the derived variant may have been advantageous in Sub-Saharan Africa, possibly by reducing access of a geographically restricted pathogen to this micronutrient. https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004128
Acute zinc-deficient mice and pregnant have an altered composition of gastro-intestinal (GI) microbiota. These changes were accompanied by alterations in markers for GI permeability and within the brain signs of neuroinflammation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31849598 Zinc deficiency alters gut microbiota composition and function. Zinc deficiency induces significant taxonomic alterations and decreases overall species richness and diversity, establishing a microbial profile resembling that of various other pathological states, along with concomitant decreases in beneficial short chain fatty acids. Increased propionic acid production and a corresponding reduction in butyric acid were also associated with zinc deficiency in young lambs https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-abstract/82/1/41/4779372
Posted by: David L | July 09, 2020 at 08:04 PM
Yes, Propionic acid, a short chain fatty acid, is used as an autism model in mice and rats. Its now been shown that treatment with a selective PPAR-α agonist (activator), fenofibrate significantly attenuated the propionic acid induced-social impairment, repetitive behavior, hyperactivity, anxiety and low exploratory activity. Even more hopeful, Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), a substance that is naturally produced in the body, not to be confused with another supplement phenylethlamine, which is also abbreviated as PEA also has shown to reverse autism in mice via PPARa activation and available over the counter. Upon PEA treatment the overall microbial community of BTBR mice was restructured and resulted significantly different from that of untreated BTBR mice. It was able to restore hippocampal BDNF signalling pathway, and improve mitochondrial dysfunction, both pathological aspects, known to be consistently associated with ASDs. Furthermore, it reduced the overall inflammatory state of BTBR mice, reducing the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines at hippocampal, serum, and colonic level. Significant reductions of all cytokines TNFα, IL-1β, and IL-6 were found in BTBR PEA mice compared to BTBR group (It reduced cytokines both in the brain and the gut). A significant increase in gut permeability was shown in vivo in BTBR mice. The analysis of gut permeability and the expression of colonic tight junctions showed a reduction of leaky gut in PEA-treated BTBR mice. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889159118305488
Zinc increases the gene expression of A20 and PPAR-α, the two zinc finger proteins with anti-inflammatory properties and a key finding is that all PPAR agonists (activators) tested lost their potency to downregulate the TNF-α–induced inflammatory response in zinc-deficient cells. However, if zinc was added back, all PPAR agonists significantly downregulated the TNF-α–mediated induction of inflammatory transcription factors NF-κB and AP-1 and significantly reduced the expression of their target genes, VCAM-1 and IL-6. In regards to Autism, I have compiled my ongoing research here so far, take a look at the entire zinc/shank3 - butyrate/propionate section to start. https://tgl.ink/v0VrgZ
Posted by: David L | January 13, 2020 at 01:38 PM
And if your shot happens to be full of debris, it probably doesn't matter if you're genetically susceptible or not.
Posted by: Carol | September 19, 2019 at 07:55 PM
Will,
The taxpayer is going to be hit very hard all around. Yes, they have to pay for direct services to the autistic. We're trying to get state-sponsored housing for my vaccine-damaged, autistic daughter. $100,000 a year. She already gets SSI and Medicaid. But small recompense for having damaged her brain and deprived her of the personality and life she should have had.
But we need to identify the genetic profiles which determine who reacts to which vaccines in the many different disabling ways there are. That would result in vaccine exemptions for those with this predisposition to react to vaccines, and also for everyone else who wanted one: you really couldn't say Well, HE doesn't have to get the vaccines, but YOU do! And that would then result in huge savings to the taxpayer (let's be honest, their bottom line is the only thing most people care about), and many lives saved rather than thrown down the autism hole.
Posted by: Cia | September 19, 2019 at 02:28 PM
May concern is that this taxpayer money is being wasted on useless research that could have helped people with autism dirrectly. Housing,jobs,healthcare are things the taxpayer money could have gone to. The vaccine talk is not important here.
Posted by: will | September 19, 2019 at 11:13 AM
Hey, the autism mystery ( and most other conditions) were discovered by a German oncologist named Dr Hamer. He wrote many books but they are all in German. Go the website I posted, it’s not mine, but it’s in English. Don’t assume to understand this biology quickly, it take takes time and personal experience to get it. There are free videos to watch under the heading Five Biological Laws. This is life changing information and will help you to understand the limits of your education and why autism is such an important topic these days. I have been using this science for 7 yrs and it’s 100% accurate 100% of the time. I don’t care if you post this, I care if you are open minded enough to study this at length.
Mikka
Posted by: Mikka Barkman | September 19, 2019 at 12:18 AM
James Adams of Arizona says that his fecal transplantation protocol of autism adults resulted in 25 percent improvement in autism behaviors.
Hurt the brain, hurt the gut, improve the gut, improve the brain.
https://asunow.asu.edu/20170123-discoveries-asu-gut-microbe-study-shows-promise-potential-treatment-autism
Posted by: Benedetta | September 18, 2019 at 06:08 PM
Oh thanks, I missed David's comment on that article.
It is that darn vagus nerve again.
I was among a bunch of parents that went to a meeting where they were telling about attaching electrodes onto the vagus nerve to stop epileptic seizures.
Cut the vagus nerve and you won't get Parkinson disease. Ahhh, what is the symptoms of a cut vegus nerve?
And now this.We found that when the vagus nerve connecting the brain and the gut was severed, L. reuteri could not restore social behavior in ASD mice. ------ and L. reuteri on social behavior are not mediated by restoring the composition of the host’s gut microbiome, which is altered in all of these ASD models. Instead, L. reuteri acts in a vagus nerve-
What in the heck is going on?
Posted by: Benedetta | September 18, 2019 at 05:23 PM
Carol,
Thank you. I just saved the comment, it was interesting, and shows how complicated the issue is. I would observe that unsocial behaviors in mice are still not the same as autism in children, nor is any kind of cancer, while motor disorders may also occur, but not as the core symptoms of autism, which I think are neurological.
Posted by: Cia | September 18, 2019 at 01:21 PM
I found an interesting comment by David L on an earlier Conrick column which may bear on the matter of the interaction between genes, diet and the microbiome. I'm not going to reproduce it because 1. it's not my comment, 2. I don't understand all of it, but it's the comment currently on top here:
https://www.ageofautism.com/2019/09/transplanting-human-autism-microbiome-in-mice-causes-autism.html#comments
Posted by: Carol | September 18, 2019 at 11:39 AM
Carol! Don't kill the message. Never.
I was just mentioning that the mothers were not exactly, wonderfully, tip top, reproductively, healthy shape. Immune stuff is connected very much to the hormones. Not just talking sex hormones; there are lots of different kinds of hormones.
The paper might have some validity - a bit.
Many years ago, my professors said that immunity stuff can, and is passed on by the father.
Which means environmental insults, like measles, or injections of pathogens hooked on to what ever -- do some how become encoded in the sperm.
There is enough scientific data out there to support that.
However; This paper has got a different kind of Mother or Mothersssss in the mix as well. I think it matters, and makes a difference.
Posted by: Benedetta | September 18, 2019 at 11:07 AM
I was wondering how mice would show autism-like symptoms since the language impairment is the primary disability in autism. I just looked at the linked articles, and they didn't say anything about autism-like symptoms in mice, just other conditions, like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a movement disorder. And the articles said that the microbiome exerted influence over gene expression, etc., not that it caused or cured anything. The mice in one study had had their microbiome altered by antibiotics. OK, we know that antibiotics wipe out the bacteria, the good with the bad, and you need to replenish it after a course of antibiotics. But, again, nearly everyone takes antibiotics at some point, and most seem to do so without lasting ill effects.
And then you have to ask why it's only a minority of people who have severe adverse reactions to vaccines. The answer is going to always come back to the interplay between genetic profiles and environmental influences like vaccines, antibiotics, other drugs, diet, stress, other acute or chronic conditions, etc.
It would set us back many years to give up the search for the genes involved, complicated though it is. Autism is not a genetic disorder, the way the pharma companies would like us to believe. But it would be throwing the baby out with the dishwater to say that this means that genes have nothing to do with it. Put the right key in the right lock, and you unlock the disastrous conditions.
Brain, kidney, thyroid, and pancreatic cancers all thrown in as well, also Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. You could consider the role of antibiotics in decimating the original microbiome, but then what? No one is going to want to ban antibiotics and just go back to letting people die of serious infections. It's been thirty years that antibiotic resistance has led to prescribing antibiotics much less often, as is appropriate. Sure, supplement with pre- and probiotics to establish or reestablish a healthy microbiome, and maybe it will help prevent some of these conditions. But with autism we're talking about direct brain damage from an excessive inflammatory reaction to vaccines. Yes, the vaccine-strain measles virus has been found in the gut, brain, and spinal fluid of many autistic children. But would it have caused autism if it had stayed in the gut and not gone to the brain? And that's a different issue than the vaccine encephalitis per se, when so many white blood cells are called up to take on the invader (the vaccine) that they impede blood circulation in the capillary beds, causing oxygen deprivation and killing or severely damaging the cells. And why do some people call up so much resistance when most do not? It's back to genes: some people have a more vigorous, on-the-ball immune system than others, and in this case it works to their (our) detriment.
It's great to try to protect the microbiome, but that's not the cause of autism, and, in our case, at least, doing what is recommended to heal the microbiome with probiotics has not worked other than to relieve bowel symptoms, not those of the nervous system and brain.
Posted by: Cia | September 18, 2019 at 09:16 AM
I still can't get on my twitter account--it's been real busy.
Orac, Dr Gorski is smart, he's a BREAST CANCER SURGEON. My challenge to him has
been over 3 years. FUNGAL THEORY IS VERY STRONG.
He probably knows that Breast Cancer is mostly a FUNGAL INFECTION. (he says it's complicated)
yes it is, especially if you have to use PATENT DRUGS--$$$.
AUTOIMMUNE? I've been down that road about as far as you can go--it sucked for me!
Lifelong treatment c big side effects! Anytime a child has had multiple STEROIDS-I think FUNGUS!
Fungal disease makes you crave SUGAR+JUNK FOOD.
MEDICINE IS IN BIG LEGAL JEOPARDY!! BE HONEST ABOUT FUNGUS--DON'T HIDE IT!
If a person wants to take a MAB-MonoClonalAntibody to suppress their possible FUNGAL INF....OK...
(they say Autoimmune) just be aware of the possible problems coming later!
Many Autoimmune Drugs are Black Box--the most risky+expensive+lifelong treatment-
that's great for pharma--consistent sick customers needing treatment.
PHARMA--THEY CAN CREATE YOUR DISEASE WITH ALL THE AB+PESTICIDES+the VAC issue.
BLAME YOUR BODY FOR IT--AUTOIMMUNE ....they got ya, lifelong treatment. See bankruptcy later.
PREVENTION Go OHA🔥🐝💚🌎. (now playing Johnson+Johnson baby powder)
Posted by: Mark Brown PA | September 18, 2019 at 07:16 AM
Is it not amazing that the CDC figured out vape-lung so quickly by comparing lungs of those who vape to the lungs of those who do not vape ? Real science is so simple.
Would it not be better for medicine to "support the vape industry" and make lots of money off vape-lung treatments and search for the "vape-lung gene" which must be the damn reason why some have problems, and some do not.
The government should pass out billions to NIH doctors and universities to do this research which will take decades and will someday provide "individual genetic" vape-lung cures.
Posted by: go Trump | September 18, 2019 at 06:21 AM
Yea Teresa Conrick! Mark BrownPA Johns Hopkins grad. here. I can't get on my twitter account
today I wonder why? It's very busy. MICROBIOMES is where it's at. I've been very consistent,
too many vacs. We need Hippocratic Docs to run medicine, not Pharma, vacs will be looked at
more critically.
You are right very impaired MICROBIOMES--ASD-Parkinsons-ALS-ALZ-Schizohpenia,CANCER
AUTOIMMUNE DIS-DIABETES-IBD CROHNS-DEPRESSION etc. How often? Fairly often.
DANGER--Heixheimer Dieoff--You could get much worse before you get better c GI Fungal Dis
It could last YEARS-mine 5yrs.
ALSO I HAD MAINLY SILENT GI DISEASE FOR OVER 30+YEARS--BIG BIG Possible problem!!
ARE ROPEWORMS FUNGAL BIOFILMS?
WHAT ARE THE AUTOPSIES SHOWING? USE EXPERTS WHO KNOW FUNGUS+ARE NOT
CONNECTED TO PHARMA.
I wish you all the best with your journeys. 💚🐝🔥🌎
.
Posted by: Mark Brown | September 18, 2019 at 06:16 AM
Blaming genetics, is just the latest bull shit strategy to take the focus off vaccines. Just because it's being dressed up as 'science' , by academic prostitutes who'd say anything for the right price, does not make it real.
I don't care what these so called 'scientists' say... you can't inherit something that your ancestors never had.
Posted by: Barry | September 17, 2019 at 10:48 PM
Benedetta, the article says that the sperm donor had undisclosed ADHD (not autism).
It doesn't say what kind of mutations in MBD1 and/or SHANK1 these kids have. A 2012 paper I looked at found SHANK1 microdeletions in 2 out of 1614 ASD males vs 0 in 15122 controls. Two out of 1614 is .12%, which isn't very much.
(I'm not vouching for the article; don't kill the messenger.)
Posted by: Carol | September 17, 2019 at 08:04 PM
Stuff like Paracetemol and Gene theory explanations for autism are straw men. No doubt some cases are genetic or due to pregnant mothers taking OTC pills, but these explanations are not threats to Big Money and so research money is available. Scientists have to eat too
The truth is probably multifactorial. Glyphosate, RF EMR (wifi, cellular, ultrasound of pregnant woman), Vaccines all contribute, their combined effects being additive or synergistic, and perhaps some are more genetically predisposed than others. But there are big bucks in this for Big Telecom, Big Agra, Big Pharma, Big Medicine. Chronic diseases like autoimmune diseases, neurodevelopment disorders and cancer are big money makers that are driving up health care costs and premiums for Big Insurance. Ultimately requiring more credit and loans which is a boom for Big Banking before eventually ending for some in bankruptcy and foreclosure.
Posted by: Pft | September 17, 2019 at 06:47 PM
I don't think that's all there is to it. I had vaccine encephalitis after my first DPT and it caused Asperger's. Same for my brother. We do not have any digestion issues. It was stroke-like brain damage. I think it's very roundabout to say that the real problem is not the stroke-like brain damage, but an altered microbiome in the gut. I recognize that gut issues are a big thing for many. My daughter had stroke-like vaccine encephalitis, mercury poisoning, and inflammatory bowel disease. However, she had normal bowel function until the age of seven, when a high fever with a summer flu started her extremely severe chronic constipation for the first time. My brother has two sons. The older has Asperger's, the younger is laconic but has not been diagnosed as being on the spectrum and I cannot say more than that. About ten years ago, they both had a high fever with severe bronchitis: the younger one completely recovered, but it started my older nephew's extremely severe chronic inflammatory bowel disease and constipation. He had to drop out of his first year of college. I was healthy until I had a high fever in Italy which started the symptoms which would be diagnosed two years later as multiple sclerosis: extremely severe and permanent insomnia for the first time. Dr. Moskowitz describes this: it is very common for a high fever to initiate a new and severe phase of the vaccine reaction.
I don't think autism is primarily a disease of the gut. I think the SCDiet and Paleo diets can improve GI health and greatly reduce symptoms of bowel disease: they have done so for my daughter. I think that symptoms caused by chronic abdominal pain could be relieved by the diet. I understand that undigested particles of gluten and casein can exert opioid-like effects which could be countered by removing gluten and casein (etc.) from the diet. But my daughter has been on probiotics (SCdophilus) and digestive enzymes (Enzymedica Complete Spectrum, I think it is) for nearly eight years now and it has not done anything to improve the symptoms of her autism.
And I think genes have everything to do with which children react to vaccines with autism. They have already found numerous genes implicated in this. It is not the case that all children start on an equal playing field and only the ones who incur certain environmental factors fall into autism. There are many nucleotide sequences which indicate if someone is likely to react to vaccines with asthma, with diabetes, with MS, etc. Different sequences for different vulnerabilities.
I think it is a mistake to think that implicating genes means that the pharma companies are home free, that it's all in the genes, so it's not the vaccines. Not at all. There are doubtless genetic profiles which determine which vaccine-damaged children will react with bowel disease, often after many years. But there are other genetic profiles which determine which children will react with "simple" brain damage to the language and social center of the brain. Maybe those who react to the MMR (who usually have GI issues) have different genetic traits compared to those who react to the pertussis vaccine, or the hep-B vaccine.
And the pharma companies are not home free. The genes create the field of susceptibility, but require the insult of vaccines (or something very similar) to trigger the autism. And we must absolutely continue our search for the different genetic factors which determine which systems in which people will be affected by vaccine damage.
But symptoms like delayed speech, aberrant speech, echolalia, reversed pronouns, inability to follow story lines in oral narratives, books, or movies, gaze avoidance, fascination with closing doors or ceiling fans, lining things up, lack of interest in social interaction (all of which my daughter did), are symptoms of a specific type of brain damage, caused by vaccine encephalitis, and it may or may not also involve the gut. And all are largely determined by our genes. But since these vulnerabilities are part of everyone's make-up, I don't think we need to fear an effort to eradicate those who have them, in different systems and to different degrees. All of us do.
Posted by: Cia | September 17, 2019 at 06:35 PM
So far behind it is laughable.
Posted by: Visitor | September 17, 2019 at 06:16 PM
Geee Carol;
There is so much wrong with that .
First we got Mothers with something in common; they are having trouble conceiving.
Second They picked out some sperm donor with out looking into his medical, family history?
I thought they all picked medical students or something like that, and any mistakes that came about was when the janitor; cleaning up at night took the opportunity to do a switch a rooooo.
Posted by: Benedetta | September 17, 2019 at 06:02 PM
Thanks again Teressa brilliant to read as a parent.I read this below looks like they forgot about the gut in the labs and what the insects would eat in the wild and not a lot if anything to do with genetics-or either it was just another fraudulant lab study.Once again the false evidence being worked to suit the result the financial corporations feed on.
Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to reduce native pest populations by making them infertile are instead breeding to create STRONGER hybrid offspring, report claims
dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7474103/Plan-fight-mosquitoes-releasing-genetically-modified-population-backfires.html?login
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | September 17, 2019 at 05:24 PM
But then there's this: "Rizzo’s children, ages 7 and 6, were at the center of one of the most ethically complex legal cases in the modern-day fertility industry. Three years ago, while researching treatment options for her sons, Rizzo says she made an extraordinary discovery: The boys are part of an autism cluster involving at least a dozen children scattered across the United States, Canada and Europe, all conceived with sperm from the same donor. Many of the children have secondary diagnoses of ADHD, dyslexia, mood disorders, epilepsy and other developmental and learning disabilities....When researchers tested Rizzo’s older son’s blood, Rizzo says they found two gene mutations linked to autism — MBD1 and SHANK1. Her younger son has the MBD1 variant. Rizzo said all seven of the half-siblings whose parents had them tested have at least one of these mutations."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-children-of-donor-h898/2019/09/14/dcc191d8-86da-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html
Posted by: Carol | September 17, 2019 at 01:26 PM
Teresa, thank you so much for bird-dogging this vital information. I would know nothing if it weren't for your efforts and persistence. Your ability to distill it down to information that my brain can process is just priceless!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
Posted by: michael | September 17, 2019 at 10:56 AM
We are the parents of an adult son with autism and he is being treated by Dr. Michael Goldberg who practices in Tarzana, California. He has maintained for years that our children are suffering from a viral encephalopathy which is an illness that manifests itself with autistic symptoms and behaviors. However it is NOT Autism, but a viral disease that is making our children sick. The whole body is affected as well as the gut microbiome, as Teresa Conrick says in her article. The illness our children are suffering from can be cured with the right medication to correct this tragic condition. If anyone knows of a way we can get this message to the NIH or the CDC would they please try to get the message across to them that our children do not have autism, but a viral disease process that only looks like autism. Our children can be cured if we can get to the right agencies, or researchers here and around the world and can be saved and CURED. We must act now as we have already waited too long for this to be recognized as a viral encephalopathy!
Posted by: Gayle | September 17, 2019 at 09:56 AM
Beautiful news indeed, that the forces of all that is good, wholesome, and righteous shut down the criminal California legislature for more than an hour. Making nice doesn't, nor has ever worked. Our only choice is civil disobedience, civil disobedience on a mass scale. The founders of our nation considered it a "natural right," one we are born with, "peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This right we must exercise in every state and every country. Our government has become an organized criminal enterprise, in the interests of the most despised industry in the country. And they are quite shameless about it.
Posted by: Gary Ogden | September 17, 2019 at 09:52 AM
Wow! Gut bacterial metabolites in the circulation alter gene expression in the brain. And unique patterns of these are present in disease. This is the most promising area of research I've heard of in a long time. NIH, are you listening? Thanks, Teresa. Your posts are always interesting and important. This one may be the best yet!
Posted by: Gary Ogden | September 17, 2019 at 08:37 AM
Teresa writes:
"Instead of looking for “autism genes,” and claiming that gene mutations are the cause , science is really showing that mutations in the gut population and missing species of bacteria are often the clues that need investigation. Treatments are meaningful in microbiome research. Gene-hunting had their turn. Enough."
If not for the fraudulent "gene" studies .. the industry and public health bureaucracies could not pretend the "science is settled" .. vaccines do not cause autism .. because there is an "autism gene" that we know exists .. we just have to take a few decades to identify it.
Unfortunately .. but predictably none-the-less .. the "science showing that mutations in gut population and missing species of bacteria" are EXACTLY the SCIENCE that is willfully IGNORED .. it will remain just more "science undone" .. defined as "areas of research that are left unfunded, incomplete, or generally ignored" meant to protect entire industries from identifying or acknowledging how dangerous and ineffective their products are.
That "vaccinated v. unvaccinated" study would be a prime example of "undone science".
Focusing on GENETICS is just another way to squander scarce financial resources while generally IGNORING or failing to COMPLETE numerous studies that conclude MORE RESEARCH IN THIS AREA IS NEEDED.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | September 17, 2019 at 07:11 AM
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/09/bretigne-shaffer/something-extraordinary-in-sacramento/
Something extraordinary happened in Sacramento last week. The people protesting California’s increasingly draconian vaccine-mandate legislation—most of them mothers of vaccine-injured children—stopped playing by the rules.
On Monday, Senate Bill 714—the companion bill to SB276 which puts the determination of medical exemptions from any of the vaccines required for school into the hands of the state—was before the California State Assembly for a vote. Six women had already been arrested, including two nursing mothers and a grandmother, and the Assembly gallery was filled with protesters, waiting quietly.
The moment the bill passed, women unfurled banners and the gallery erupted in chanting. Appeals for “quiet in the Chamber!” and cries of “we’re asking for decorum” were drowned out with “You have not represented California for all!” The demonstrators succeeded in shutting down both the Assembly and Senate chambers for more than an hour.
Ultimately, the Senate did vote the bill through, and soon after, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed both SB276 and SB714 into law. But four days later the demonstrators were still there, and they have pledged to disrupt the lives and the work of those who passed this legislation for as long as it takes to reverse it.
What these parents have learned is that playing by the rules will do nothing to protect their rights. For years, these women (and some men) had been lining up in an orderly fashion and calmly giving whatever limited testimony they were allowed, only to have it ignored. For years, they had listened to haughty legislators demand that they behave in a civil manner while slicing away at their most basic freedoms.
Posted by: Hans Litten | September 17, 2019 at 06:10 AM