British Scientists are working on a test which could identify children who have autism as young as six months based on the chemical fingerprint of their gut microbes. The Telegraph reported on this development in a story “Autism Test Could Make the Condition ‘Preventable’.” According to new research that is being published tomorrow, children with autism have a different chemical fingerprint of their gut microbes which can be analyzed through a urine test which could eventually screen for autism. The article in the Journal of Proteome Research is called Urinary Metabolic Phenotyping Differentiates Children with Autism from their Unaffected Siblings and Age-Matched Controls.
The study found that a group of non-autistic children had a different chemical fingerprint from siblings of children with autism and that children with autism had a different chemical fingerprint than either siblings or non-autistic children. Of course, we don’t know if the difference in gut microbiology is a cause of the autism or a result of a system that is not working.
The author of the study, Professor Jeremy Nicholson said “Children with autism have very unusual gut microbes which we can test for before the full blown symptoms of the disease come through.” (1)
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(1) http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/autism-test-could-make-condition-preventable-93894034