Behavioral Correlates of Maternal Antibody Status Among Children with Autism

• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-011-1378-7
• Publication Date: 2011-10-19T15:18:33Z
• Authors: Daniel Braunschweig; Paul Duncanson; Robert Boyce; Robin Hansen; Paul Ashwood; Isaac N. Pessah; Irva Hertz-Picciotto; Judy Van de Water
• Keywords: Male; Blotting, Western; Brain; Mothers; Gestational Age; Child Behavior Disorders; Autoantigens; Macaca mulatta; Cohort Studies; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Antibody Specificity; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Pregnancy; Reference Values; Child, Preschool; Immunoglobulin G; Animals; Humans; Female; Language Development Disorders; Autoantibodies

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) affect approximately 1 in 110 children in the United States. This report profiles fetal-brain reactive autoantibodies of a large cohort of mothers of children with autism and controls, yielding significant associations between the presence of IgG reactivity to fetal brain proteins at 37 and 73 kDa and a childhood diagnosis of full autism (p = 0.0005), which also correlated with lower expressive language scores (p = 0.005). Additionally, we report on reactivity to proteins at 39 and 73 kDa, which correlated with the broader diagnosis of ASD (p = 0.0007) and increased irritability on the Aberrant Behavioral Checklist (p = 0.05). This study provides evidence of multiple patterns of reactivity to fetal brain proteins by maternal antibodies associated with ASD and specific childhood behavioral outcomes.