Autism and GI Issues.

New Study Links Genetics, Autism and GI Issues
By Lisa Jo Rudy


Monday March 2, 2009
According to today's Science Daily, "A study led by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and Vanderbilt University have identified a specific gene variant that links increased genetic risk for autism with gastrointestinal (GI) conditions."

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication abilities, social behavior disruption and inflexible behavior. While gastrointestinal conditions are common among individuals with autism, researchers have long debated whether co-occurring GI dysfunction represents a unique autism subgroup, Levitt and lead author Daniel Campbell, Ph.D., say.

"Gastrointestinal disorders don't cause autism. Autism is a disorder of brain development," Levitt says. Disturbances in MET expression result in alterations in how these critical circuits develop and mature, Levitt explains. Researchers analyzed medical history records from 214 families in the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE). They found that a variant in the MET gene was associated with autism specifically in those families where an individual had co-occurring autism and a GI condition.

If I'm understanding this finding correctly, on the one hand it validates claims by many members of the autism community that there really is a correlation between autism and GI disorders. While many have insisted that the correlation relates to measles virus left in the gut after the MMR vaccine, this study suggests that the correlation is purely genetic.

www.newsweek.com
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