Genetic Component to Autism Found

The researchers at University of California Davis-UC Davis for short- have been doing a study on pregnant women. The newest findings found that some women have a variation or change in their MET gene, or met proto-oncogene (hepatocyte growth factor receptor) as it is officially known. This is a gene that is needed in developing embryos and babies, as well as wound healing. Normally, the MET gene is just one of about 58 “receptor tyrosine kinase proteins”; this means that the MET gene is in part responsible for helping protect against disease or lessening the effect of diseases that an individual may have. For example, if someone has a variation of the MET gene and also a certain type of cancer, their likely hood of survival may be lower than that of someone without the MET gene variation.

The UC Davis researchers have found that the MET gene deviation in pregnant women can actually cause autoantibodies to form. These autoantibodies are typically manufactured by a person’s immune system and will actually attack the protein of an individual. In a developing child, this basically means that the mother’s own immune system is attacking the child’s brain protein. Since the child doesn’t have any of their own antibodies to fight off this “attack”, the autoantibodies attack on the brains proteins can result in a neurodevelopment disorder, such as autism.

The women who are at a higher risk for this gene deviation are ones whose blood work show that they have antibodies against fetal brain proteins. (Fetal brain proteins are essentially the proteins developing embryos or babies have as their brains are developing.) These antibodies have only been found in mother’s whose child or children have gone on to be diagnosed with autism. Those who do not have a child with autism do not have the antibodies present in their blood. However, researchers at UC Davis do note that just because a woman has these antibodies does not automatically mean that their child will be autistic.

As of right now, researchers are studying why this immune switch turns on and off in some women, while not in others. They are also trying to figure out why some children whose mothers have the MET gene deviation develop autism while other children do not. In addition, the researchers at UC Davis and other research facilities are trying to develop ways to turn off this “switch” or treat the autoantibodies when they form.