Researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, claim to have detected some damage to blood plasma proteins autistic children. Concretely, children with autism spectrum disorders (TSA) are said to have higher levels of diterosin in their blood as well as certain compounds modified by sugar called AGE (Advanced glycation end-products). This discovery suggests the possibility of a biological test that would detect the disease at an early stage.
A study of 38 children with autism spectrum disorder
For this research, British scientists worked with researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy. They recruited 38 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and a control group of 31 other children aged 5 to 12.
Blood and urine samples were taken for analysis, which found chemical differences between the two groups.
The next step will be to repeat this research with other groups of children to confirm good diagnostic performance and to assess whether a test can identify ASD at an early stage.
This study was published in the journal Molecular autism.
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