NEU/TUE/01 IMMUNOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO MUMPS, MEASLES, RUBELLA VACCINATION, CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM OR OTHER ANTIGENS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS AND CONTROLS

¹G Baird, ³A Pickles, ²E Simonoff, ⁷A Vincent, ⁴D Brown, ⁶T Charman, ⁵M Afzal, ⁶S Chandler, ¹T Lucas. ¹Newcomen Centre, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; ²Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK; ³Biostatistics Group, Division of Epidemiology and Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; ⁴Virus Reference Department, Centre for Infections, Health Protection Agency, London, UK; ⁵National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Hertfordshire, UK; ⁶Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK; ⁷Immunology Neurosciences Group, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK

Aim: To compare the immunological response to measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccination in three groups of children, one with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), one with special educational needs (SEN) but no ASD and a third typically developing group of children. Also, to assess the immunological response to a range of antigens both to central nervous system (CNS) and other tissues in the same three groups.

Methods: A population-representative sample of children aged 9–14 years in the United Kingdom, 101 with ASD, 54 with SEN but no ASD (98 and 52, respectively, who had been vaccinated) and 90 typically developing children were tested for measles virus, antibody response to measles in serum, lymphocyte subsets and immunoglobulin classes and subclasses, autoantibodies to muscle, kidney, liver etc and antibodies to CNS structures, myelin basic protein, actin, tubulin, basal ganglia and non-specific CNS antigens on slices of mouse brain.

Results: The results were analyzed as total ASD versus total combined control groups (SEN plus typically developing), as narrow autism versus ASD versus SEN versus typically developing and within ASD as regression and no regression. In those vaccinated with MMR, no …