Press Release:
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.
Raymond Gallup, president
Autism Autoimmunity Project
45 Iroquois Avenue
Lake Hiawatha, NJ 07034
Tel 973 299-9162
Vijendra Singh, Ph.D.
Tel# 435 797-7193
Press spokesman for Dr. Wakefield and Dr. O’Leary
Abel Hadden
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
Courtney Nelson
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 B) 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 James 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).