Anti-ganglioside M1 auto-antibodies in autistic children / Nancy Nabil Abdallah Hamam ; Supervised Magda Ibrahim Mohamed Ayoub , Reham Mohamed Raafat Hamed , Mai Mohamed Abdelsamie

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine- Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Background: Autism is a neurological and developmental illness that starts early in childhood and lasts during a patient{u2019}s life. It affects how a person acts and interacts with others, communicates, and learns. While the etiology of autism remains unidentified, various signs propose a possible association with the altered immune system and autism. Aim of the work: This study aimed to compare the level of anti-ganglioside M1 autoantibodies between autistic and normally developed children and to investigate the hypothesis that some cases of autism are autoimmune in nature.Patients and methods: This study enrolled 40 autistic patients and 40 age and gender-matched healthy controls. Demographic and clinical data were prospectively evaluated. Plasma GM1 level was measured. Results: Plasma GM1 levels were significantly higher in autistic patients compared to the control group (P-value= 0.001). We found that GM1 level in 21 (52.5%) patients with mild to moderate severity was 3.73 ± 0.57 ng/ ml which was less than its level (3.77 ± 0.68 ng/ ml) in patients presenting with severe autism 19 (47.5%). However, this difference was not statistically significant (P-value = 0.84). We found that GM1 level was affected by the disease progression as the deteriorated children presented with the highest GM1 level (4.65 ± 1.91 ng/ml) followed by stationary children (3.75 ± 0.53ng/ml) and finally the improved children showed the lowest level (3.59 ± 0.44ng/ml) = 0.316)e

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