Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) afflicts 1% of the world’s population. We have previously talked about ASD in this post,
This disorder consists of various symptoms that afflict the social and communicative life of the person such as hyperactivity, speech disorders, anxiety etc.
Researchers at the University of Warwick (UK) have found a link between the Autism Spectre (ASD) and damage to proteins in blood plasma.
The study, published by Molecular Autism, confirmed previous research that found a connection between certain mutations in amino acid transporters with ASD.
Proteins in the blood plasma can be damaged by oxidation and glycation processes. The test is aimed at identifying this damage.
The British team, in the development of this test, collaborated with the University of Birmingham (UK) and the University of Bologna (Italy).
The team made urine and blood tests to 38 children with ASD and a group of 31 non-ASD children. The team found that the results between the analysis of the two groups were chemically different.
The researchers want to repeat this study with other groups of children, if the good diagnostic perfromance confirmed it would be possible to identify the ASD at early stages.