Immune Changes May Link Autism and Epilepsy in Children

Source: Frontiers in neurology

Summary

Researchers studied children aged 9 to 14 years who have mild autism spectrum disorder (ASD), some of whom also have epilepsy (EP). The goal was to see if there are differences in immune markers between children with ASD alone and those with both ASD and EP. They collected blood samples from 30 children, analyzing various immune proteins and white blood cell counts to look for any significant changes.

The study found that three specific immune proteins—IL-12p70, IL-13, and IL-1β—were higher in children with both ASD and EP compared to those with ASD only. However, the differences in these proteins were not strong enough to be considered statistically significant after adjusting for multiple tests. The researchers noted that while the effect sizes were moderate to large, the small number of participants limited the strength of their conclusions.

These findings suggest that there may be changes in the immune system linked to epilepsy in children with autism, which could help in diagnosing epilepsy in this group. However, because the study involved a small number of children, more research is needed to confirm these results and understand their implications better.

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