From: hounddog23x@gmail.com   
      
   Brain inflammation a hallmark of autism, large-scale analysis shows   
      
   BY JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE ON DECEMBER 10, 2014    
      
   MENTAL HEALTH   
      
      
      
   While many different combinations of genetic traits can cause autism, brains   
   affected by autism share a pattern of ramped-up immune responses, an analysis   
   of data from autopsied human brains reveals. The study, a collaborative effort   
   between Johns    
   Hopkins and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, included data from 72   
   autism and control brains. It will be published online Dec. 10 in the journal   
   Nature Communications.   
      
   "There are many different ways of getting autism, but we found that they all   
   have the same downstream effect," says Dan Arking, Ph.D. , an associate   
   professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine at the Johns   
   Hopkins University School    
   of Medicine. "What we don't know is whether this immune response is making   
   things better in the short term and worse in the long term."   
      
      
       
   The causes of autism, also known as autistic spectrum disorder, remain largely   
   unknown and are a frequent research topic for geneticists and neuroscientists.   
   But Arking had noticed that for autism, studies of whether and how much genes   
   were being used --    
   known as gene expression -- had thus far involved too little data to draw many   
   useful conclusions. That's because unlike a genetic test, which can be done   
   using nearly any cells in the body, gene expression testing has to be   
   performed on the specific    
   tissue of interest -- in this case, brains that could only be obtained through   
   autopsies.   
      
   To combat this problem, Arking and his colleagues analyzed gene expression in   
   samples from two different tissue banks, comparing gene expression in people   
   with autism to that in controls without the condition. All told, they analyzed   
   data from 104 brain    
   samples from 72 individuals -- the largest data set so far for a study of gene   
   expression in autism.   
      
   Previous studies had identified autism-associated abnormalities in cells that   
   support neurons in the brain and spinal cord. In this study, Arking says, the   
   research team was able to narrow in on a specific type of support cell known   
   as a microglial cell,    
   which polices the brain for pathogens and other threats. In the autism brains,   
   the microglia appeared to be perpetually activated, with their genes for   
   inflammation responses turned on. "This type of inflammation is not well   
   understood, but it highlights    
   the lack of current understanding about how innate immunity controls neural   
   circuits," says Andrew West, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurology at the   
   University of Alabama at Birmingham who was involved in the study.   
      
   Arking notes that, given the known genetic contributors to autism,   
   inflammation is unlikely to be its root cause. Rather, he says, "This is a   
   downstream consequence of upstream gene mutation." The next step, he says,   
   would be to find out whether treating    
   the inflammation could ameliorate symptoms of autism.   
      
   http://www.psypost.org/2014/12/brain-inflammation-hallmark-autis   
   -large-scale-analysis-shows-30082   
      
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