Is Autism Associated with A Viral Infection?

[Guest guest]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/is-autism-associated-with_b_316986.htm\

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Last week, researchers from the University of Nevada, the National Cancer

Institute and The Cleveland Clinic announced the startling discovery of

antibodies to a little known retrovirus in 95% of patients with Myalgic

Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a debilitating neuro-immune

disease impacting more than a million people in the United States.

The finding, published in the highly respected journal Science, " clearly points

to the retrovirus as a significant contributing factor in this illness, " said

lead author Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., director of research for the Whittemore

Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, which is affiliated with the

University of Nevada, Reno. It was the first study to isolate particles of the

retrovirus, XMRV, in human blood and demonstrate that it is transmitted between

blood cells. XMRV was first discovered in prostate cancer tissue of men with

certain genetic defects. Like the more well-known retrovirus, HIV, this pathogen

is blood-borne, and not transmitted through the air.

The findings have potential significance for a number of other disorders

including, it turns out, autism.

Researchers tested blood samples from a " small group of children " with autism

and found that 40% of them were positive for XMRV, according to a statement from

the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders. More testing is underway

which, the Commission said, " could dramatically increase that 40% positive

finding. " (Given the small sample size, such a statement is purely speculative).

As Dr. Mikovits explained to a television news program in Nevada, " It is not in

the paper and not reported, but we have actually done some of these studies (in

ASD children) and found the virus in a significant number of samples that we

have tested for. It could be linked to a number of neuro-immune diseases,

including autism. It certainly won't be all, because there are genetic defects

that result in autism. But there are also the environmental effects; there is

always the hypothesis that, 'My child was fine and then they got sick, and then

they got autism.' "

According to Dr. Mikovits, XMRV (which admittedly sounds like a satellite radio

system for your Winnebago) can lie dormant in people, until it is " turned on or

off " by other factors, such as stress hormones like cortisol, or in response to

the presence of inflammatory " cytokines, " protein molecules secreted by immune

cells to help regulate the immune system.

And then Dr. Mikovits dropped a bombshell that is sure to spark controversy..

" On that note, if I might speculate a little bit, " she said, " This might even

explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children, because these

viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune response cells,

the B and the T cells. So when you give a vaccine, you send your B and T cells

in your immune system into overdrive. That's its job. Well, if you are harboring

one virus, and you replicate it a whole bunch, you've now broken the balance

between the immune response and the virus. So you have had the underlying virus,

and then amplified it with that vaccine, and then set off the disease, such that

your immune system could no longer control other infections, and created an

immune deficiency. "

So there you have it - a possible explanation of regressive autism in a

significant number of cases associated with immune system deregulation triggered

by vaccination.

Of course, much more work is needed to nail down the exact significance of such

an association. For example, is the virus implicated in the cause of autism, or

do children harbor the virus as a result of autism?

Either way, it is notable that such questions are being asked by mainstream

sources such as the University of Nevada, and by extension the NCI and the

Cleveland Clinic: Can XMRV infection plus vaccination create the right

conditions for regressive autism? That remains to be seen. But it also means

that the thousands of parents who claim their children did regress shortly after

vaccination may not be so crazy and " fringe " as they have been portrayed by

experts such as Dr. Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Dr.

Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health and Chair of the

federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC).

" We certainly are advocating vaccinations and how important those are to the

well being of the children, " explained Annette Whittemore, founder of the

Whittemore Institute.

" But what we are hoping for is, by finding out whether or not one is positive to

XMRV, whether it is in one family member or another, and then looking for it in

children, you could alter the immune response in such a way that you can protect

the child and still be able to vaccinate and avoid autism in these kids. And

again, I don't think ether one of us is sitting here saying, 'Vaccinations cause

autism,' but rather a number of factors; a genetic susceptibility to the

illness, to the infection itself, and then on top of that you are adding

something to that mix that takes that child over the top. "

Apparently, the CFS findings have impressed the scientific community. " We

presented these data three times: Twice at closed conferences at the NIH, and

one at an international meeting a few weeks ago, and you could hear a pin drop

in the audience - it's amazement " Mikovits said. " The scientists are excited,

everyone is working on it, so we know we are going to get a lot of help. It's

just amazement, it's an entirely new field of medicine and everyone who's ever

worked in this family of viruses is, now that we've shown it's a human pathogen,

is extremely excited. "

Whittemore added that researchers hoped to develop a vaccine against XMRV

quickly, noting that " It would be easier to find a vaccine against this than

HIV, because it is a simple retrovirus. "

The discovery raises more questions than it answers. What, exactly, is it about

immunization that might switch on XMRV viral expression? Could the effect of

heavy metals upon cytokine balances be at play? Where did this retrovirus come

from, and how did it apparently become so prevalent in children with autism? Did

these children inherit the virus from a parent, or was there some other

unexplained route of transmission? Why has the NIH said nothing about XMRV in

association with autism, and did Dr. Insel know about these findings without

sharing them with the IACC?

Finally, Dr. Insel has said that a vaccine against autism may one day be

developed. Was he actually referring to a vaccine against XMRV, and what role,

if any, might he or members of his family play in the development of such a

vaccine?

According to Insel's own biography, in 1994, he went to Emory University,

Atlanta as a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the

Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center. " As director of Yerkes, " his bio says,

" Dr. Insel built one of the nation's leading HIV vaccine research programs. "

 

Love, Gabby. :0)

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" I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had

some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin. " ~ Jerry Newport