M.I.N.D. in the News

[Guest guest]

$5 million grant puts UCD on trail of autism's cause: The new center will

pull researchers from various specialties.

By Dorsey Griffith

Bee Medical Writer

(Published Oct. 26, 2001)

Armed with a $5 million federal grant, University of California, ,

scientists hope to finally determine whether environmental contaminants may

be a cause of autism.

The money, awarded in a ceremony in Cincinnati on Thursday, will pay for the

creation of the UC Center for Children's Environmental Health and

Disease Prevention Research. The center will pool expertise from a diverse

collection of university researchers from, among others, the schools of

agriculture, medicine and veterinary medicine.

" This is really a unique opportunity for UC , " said Isaac Pessah, a

neuropharmacology and toxicology professor and the center's principal

investigator. " This will bring together the talents of people and their

strengths in their own disciplines and permit them to collaborate for the

first time on a very important issue. "

The five-year grants to and other sites throughout the country come

from the National Institute of Environmental Health Services. The Medical

Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (M.I.N.D.) Institute at

will contribute an additional $3.5 million and the university will chip in

$500,000.

The center will be the first of its kind to specifically look at the

potential role of contaminants such as mercury and PCBs in abnormal social

behavior in children.

" At the moment, there is no factor we can say conclusively is a cause of

autism, " said G. Amaral, a neuroscientist in the School of Medicine, an

autism expert and a co-investigator at the new center. " Almost nobody

worldwide has looked at whether any kind of environmental contaminants can

change social behavior. "

The money comes at a time of unprecedented growth in the number of children

diagnosed with autism in California. In the last quarter ending Oct. 4, for

example, 705 new cases were reported, according to the state Department of

Developmental Services.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder in which children seem isolated from

the world around them, have trouble communicating and handling social

relations.

While most research has focused on the likely genetic component of autism,

many scientists also are convinced that something in the environment may tip

the scales for those children already susceptible to the disorder.

" There is not a single autism gene, and at least in some cases, it's likely

the genetic contribution is not enough to produce autism, " Amaral said. " So

something else has to occur for the children to become autistic. "

Two studies on the relationship of vaccines and autism done by the federal

Institute of Medicine were inconclusive, Amaral said.

What is known is that the heavy metal mercury, which has been widely used in

vaccines, can cause neurological disorders in high concentrations. And PCBs,

polychlorinated biphenyls, which until the mid-1970s were used in

manufacturing, have been shown to induce cancer in mammals.

Research among center faculty will consist of three projects completed over

five years.

The first will involve an epidemiological study of 2,000 California children

between 2 and 5 years old, some of whom have autism and some who don't. The

children will be tested for cognitive and social skills and their parents

will be interviewed about family history and exposure to toxins. Blood

samples from the children will be analyzed for exposure to PCBs and mercury.

Another project will use monkeys exposed to mercury and PCBs in

concentrations similar to those the average child is exposed to as a way to

determine whether the chemicals affect social behavior.

" If it turns out that the monkeys are interacting normally, we will have to

conclude that at least the levels of mercury kids are getting may not be

enough to cause autism, " Amaral said.

The third project, overseen by Pessah, will involve testing blood samples

from the 2,000 study participants to see how environmental chemicals disrupt

neurodevelopment at the cellular level.

If the researchers are able to find a definitive link between the toxins and

autism, Pessah said, work can then begin to find treatments for the disorder

and ways to prevent exposure to the poisons.