Brief report: High frequency of biochemical markers for mitochondrial dysfunction in autism: no association with the mitochondrial aspartate/glutamate carrier SLC25A12 gene.

Doctors drew blood from 210 autistic people. They checked for signs that the cell batteries, the mitochondria, were sick.

They also looked at one gene, SLC25A12, that moves fuel into those batteries. They asked: do autistic kids carry broken copies of this gene?

Most samples showed mitochondrial trouble—think low battery alarms.

Yet the SLC25A12 gene looked normal in almost everyone. The gene is not the switch that causes the power outage.

Two years later Porter et al. (2008) saw the opposite. In Finnish families the same gene variant went hand-in-hand with autism. The clash sits in how each team hunted: Catarina scanned the whole gene for any glitch, while A et al. zeroed in on one tiny SNP in families.

Older work backs the battery problem. Burack et al. (2004) already found low carnitine—another fuel gauge—in autistic kids. Catarina widened the panel and still saw red lights.

Nickel et al. (2023) carried the hunt into adults. Their ASD group had lower lactate and CK, not higher. Age and support level change the metabolic picture, so one size does not fit all.

You can’t fix mitochondria by testing one gene. If a child shows fatigue, low muscle tone, or odd lab spikes, order a full metabolic work-up, not just SLC25A12. Track carnitine, lactate, alanine, and ammonia. Share results with the pediatrician; some kids feel better with carnitine or B-vitamin boosts. Keep watching—today’s normal gene can still sit in a tired cell.