United States: A new study says that checking a child’s gut microbes might help find out if they have autism. Scientists looked at over 1,600 stool samples from kids ages 1 to 13 and found special signs in the samples of children with autism.
Potential for Early Diagnosis
This could mean that looking at gut bacteria, fungi, and viruses might be a new way to diagnose autism in the future, according to researcher Qi Su from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The study was published on July 8 in Nature Microbiology.
The findings means that unique traces of gut bacteria, fungi, viruses and more could one day become a diagnostic tool and the lead study author Qi Su, a researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the New York Times.
Such a tool could help professionals diagnose autism sooner, quickly getting children treatments that are more effective at younger ages, he added.
Controversy and Acceptance
The idea was tantalizing to some experts.
“Too much is left to questionnaires,” Sarkis Mazmanian who is a microbiome researcher at the California Institute of Technology, told the Times. “If we can get to something we can measure — whatever it is — that’s a huge improvement.”
For decades, researchers have searched for a reliable indicator of autism, with limited success. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two diagnostic tests based on eye-tracking software, the Times reported.
Some researchers have more recently started investigating whether human stool and which offers a window into the trillions of fungi, bacteria and viruses living in the intestines, might offer a new way to diagnose the disorder.
Still the concept of this gut microbiome plays vital role in the development of autism remains controversial among researchers, Gaspar Taroncher-Oldenburg, a microbiologist who published a landmark study on the subject last year told the times.
He called the most recent study an “important milestone” in the broader acceptance of this line of research.
Major Findings in the New Study
“There is a changing of the winds,” he said. “People are now accepting that the microbiome is not just part of this, but it might be a fundamental piece of the puzzle.”
In the new study, researchers identified major biological differences between the stool of children with autism and other samples.
Contrary to past research, the investigators decided to look at other microorganisms in the gut besides bacteria, including fungi, archaea and viruses, as well as related metabolic processes.