Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROINFLAMMATION
Volume 9, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
BMC
DOI: 10.1186/1742-2094-9-158
Keywords
Autism; Autoimmunity; Childhood autism rating scale; IL-17A; T-helper 17
Categories
Funding
- King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- NPST
- Health Research and Studies program at King Saud University
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Background: The T-helper (Th) 1/Th2 dichotomy dominated the field of immune regulation until interleukin (IL)-17-expressing T cells (Th17) were proposed to be a third lineage of helper T cells, the key players in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders. Autoimmunity to brain tissue may play a pathogenic role in autism. IL-17A is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that has been shown to play an important role in various autoimmune neuroinflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to measure serum levels of IL-17A in relation to the degree of the severity of autism. Methods: Serum IL-17A levels were measured by ELISA in 45 children with autism and 40 matched healthy controls. Results: Children with autism had significantly higher serum IL-17A levels than healthy controls (P <0.001), with increased serum levels of IL-17A found in 48.9% of the autism group. Patients with severe autism had significantly higher serum IL-17A levels than those with mild to moderate autism (P = 0.01), and raised serum IL-17A levels were significantly more common in children with severe autism (67.9%) than in those with mild to moderate autism (17.6%), P = 0.001. Conclusions: Serum IL-17A levels were raised in the group with autism, and the levels correlated significantly with the severity of autism. This is the first study to measure levels of IL-17A in relation to the severity of autism, to our knowledge. Further research, with a larger subject population, is warranted to determine whether the increase of serum IL-17A levels plasma has a pathogenic role in autism, and whether anti-IL-17A therapy could be useful
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