Role for antibodies in altering behavior and movement.
Mom’s antibodies may nudge fetal brain development, but the autism link in humans is still unproven.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Smith et al. (2010) looked at animal and human studies on mom-made antibodies. These proteins can slip into the fetus and stick to baby-brain cells.
The team asked: do these sticky antibodies change how the young brain grows and acts?
What they found
In mice and monkeys, moms with certain antibodies had pups that moved oddly and socialized less. The same antibody pattern shows up in some moms of kids with autism.
But no study has yet proven these antibodies cause autism in people. The link is still a maybe, not a yes.
How this fits with other research
Bigby et al. (2009) found tech-job moms had 2.5 times higher odds of an autistic child. That paper hunted for social-risk clues, not immune ones. The two studies sit side-by-side: one points to work exposure, the other to body chemistry.
Olu-Lafe et al. (2014) showed kids with autism are slower at piecing shapes together. That cognitive finding does not clash with the antibody story; it simply looks at a different part of the puzzle—how the brain works after it is built.
Granader et al. (2014) used parent forms to flag rigid thinking in autism. Again, no contradiction: executive struggles may ride on the same altered brain paths that antibodies might help create.
Why it matters
When you take a developmental history, ask about mom’s job and any immune issues like lupus or odd antibody tests. You cannot treat antibodies yet, but noting them helps families understand possible causes and steers you toward early motor and social targets.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
At the past meeting of INSAR, the role of autoimmunity was discussed in an educational session. This article summarizes this discussion. In immune-mediated diseases, antibodies can contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease and are sometimes the force that drives the disease process. This concept has not been established for autism. In autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), antibodies are found to react with double-stranded DNA. These antibodies also cross-react with N-methyl-D aspartate receptors. Many SLE patients suffer neurologic syndromes of the central nervous system (CNS). Similarly individuals infected with Group A streptococcus (GAS) have antibodies against the GAS carbohydrate, which cross-react with tubulin and lysoganglioside GM1 on neurons. During the acute stage of infection, GAS-infected patients develop Syndenham chorea where the disease process is driven in part by these cross-reactive antibodies. As the antibody levels decrease, the clinical features of Syndenham chorea resolve. In these two immune-mediated diseases, antibodies clearly play a role in the pathogenesis of the diseases. There are reports that mothers of individuals with autism have antibodies that react with brain proteins and when these antibodies are passively transferred to pregnant non-human primates or rodents the offspring has behavioral and nervous system changes. It is still not clear whether the antibodies found in mothers of individuals with autism actually play a role in the disease. More studies need to be performed to identify the proteins recognized by the antibodies and to determine how these could affect development, behavior and changes within the CNS.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2010 · doi:10.1002/aur.144