Press Release: Dr. Vijendra K Singh

[Guest guest]

Press Release: Dr. Vijendra K. Singh

With the controversy that is being reported in the UK, regarding the

recent article by Dr. Wakefield, Dr. O'Leary, et al. in Molecular

Pathology regarding measles in the gut, there is a new article by Dr.

Vijendra Singh, Ph.D. of Utah State University. This important

ground-breaking research is below.

Gallup, president

Autism Autoimmunity Project

45 Iroquois Avenue

Lake Hiawatha, NJ 07034

Tel 973 299-9162

http://www.gti.net/truegrit/

http://www.casiquest.org/

Vijendra Singh, Ph.D.

singhvk@...

Tel# 435 797-7193

Press spokesman for Dr. Wakefield and Dr. O'Leary

Abel Hadden

ahadden@...

http://www.visceral.org.uk/

The latest press on the MMR vaccine and autism can be found on

http://www.jabs.org.uk/pages/mmr/main.asp

Abnormal Measles Serology and Autoimmunity in Autistic Children

Abstract 702

Vijendra K Singh

Utah State University,

Logan, UT

[Not yet available online.]

Immune factors such as autoimmunity may play a causal role in

autism.

We recently showed that many autistic children have autoantibodies to

brain myelin basic protein (MBP) as well as elevated levels of measles

virus antibodies. To extend this research further, we conducted a

serological study of measles virus (MV), mumps virus (MuV), rubella

virus (RV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6),

measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT),

diptheria-tetanus (DT) and hepatitis B (Hep and studied correlations

with MBP autoantibodies.

Antibodies were assayed in sera of autistic children (n=125) and

normal children (n=92) by ELISA or immunoblotting methods. We found that

autistic children have significantly (p=0.001) higher than normal levels

of MV and MMR antibodies whereas the antibody levels of MuV, RV, CMV,

HHV-6, DPT, DT or Hep B did not significantly differ between autistic

and normal children.

Immunoblotting analysis showed the presence of an unusual MMR

antibody in 60% (75 of 125) of autistic children, but none of the 92

normal children had this antibody. Moreover, by using MMR blots and

monoclonal antibodies, we found that the specific increase of MV

antibodies or MMR antibodies was related to measles hemagglutinin

antigen (MV-HA), but not to mumps or rubella viral proteins, of the MMR

vaccine. In addition, over 90% of MMR antibody-positive autistic sera

were also positive for MBP autoantibodies, suggesting a causal

association between MMR and brain autoimmunity in autism.

Stemming from this evidence, we suggest that an " atypical " measles

infection in the absence of a rash but with neurological symptoms might

be etiologically linked to autoimmunity in autism. (Supported by grants

from the Dougherty Jr Foundation, Unanue Foundation, Lettner Jr

Foundation, Autism Autoimmunity Project and Autism Research Institute)

Journal of Allergy Clin Immunol 109 (1):S232, 2002 (January).

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