Autism-Induced Brain Inflammation Could be Targeted for Treatment

Autopsy analysis of autistic brains has shown common traits of inflammation, which researchers hope could be targeted for treatment.

A study carried out by researchers at John's Hopkins University and University of Alabama in Birmingham showed that specific cells associated with immune response in the brain were permanently active in autistic brains, causing tissue inflammation. According to Huffington Post, the research showed that inflammation was not autism's cause but an effect of mutations that caused the disorder.

"There are many different ways of getting autism, but we found that they all have the same downstream effect. What we don't know is whether this immune response is making things better in the short term and worse in the long term," said Dan Arking, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in a news release.

Causes of autism continue to remain a mystery though research has hinted at several possible culprit genes.

In the current study, researchers studied 72 brains of which 32 were autistic. When they examined microglial cells which play an instrument role in keeping the brain safe from pathogens, they found inflammation response genes activated perpetually in cells of autistic brains but turned off in normal brains.

"This type of inflammation is not well understood, but it highlights the lack of current understanding about how innate immunity controls neural circuits," said Andrew West, at the University of Alabama.

Arking adds, "This is a downstream consequence of upstream gene mutation and the next will be to determine if treating inflammation could improve autism symptoms."

The findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications.