A new vaccine developed for gut bacteria common in autistic children mayhelp control the disorder's gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms.
It is the first vaccine of its kind, say researchers at University of Guelphin Ontario.
The study is published in this month's issue of thejournal Vaccine.
The vaccine fights Clostridium bolteae (C.bolteae), which appears in highernumbers in the GI tracts of children with autism than in those of healthy kids.The gut bug is associated with GI symptoms such as constipation and diarrhea.As reported in ScienceDaily, more than 90 percent of children withautism spectrum disorders suffer from chronic, severe gastrointestinalsymptoms. Of those, about 75 percent suffer from diarrhea.
"Little is known about the factors that predispose autistic children toC. bolteae," said co-study author Mario Monteiro. Although mostinfections are handled by some antibiotics, he said, a vaccine would improvecurrent treatment.
"This is the first vaccine designed to control constipation anddiarrhea caused by C. bolteae and perhaps control autism-relatedsymptoms associated with this microbe," he added.
Some researchers believe toxins and/or metabolites produced by gut bacteria,including C. bolteae, may be associated with symptoms and severity of autism, especiallyregressive autism.
This vaccine targets the polysaccharides, or carbohydrates, on the surfaceof the bug. In doing so, the researchers reported increased levels of C.bolteae-specific antibodies in rabbits. They said they could use thevaccine-induced antibodies to detect the bug in a clinical setting.
Since this was an animal study, we won't see this for a number of years.Monteiro said it could take more than 10 years to work through preclinical andhuman trials, and it may take even longer before a drug is ready for market.
"But this is a significant first step in the design of a multivalentvaccine against several autism-related gut bacteria," he said.
Photo credit: MorgueFile