The four viruses linked to autism

Staffing one of the children’s hospitals in Michigan, Dr Megan Pesch has seen more and more just how much harm the cytomegalovirus or CMV can cause to the newborns. 
 
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a rather obscure but at the same time, quite widespread herpes virus. Approximately one in 200 children in England are born with a so called congenital CMV infection that they inherited from their mother while still in the womb, according to NHS. Cerebral – such an infection is able to penetrate the brain and as it is approximated, about one out of every thousand children is affected and this results in the child growing up with some form of a disability; the most prevalent one being hearing impairment. 
 
In a recent study, Dr Pesch has exposed one of the later effects of congenital CMV infection on the developing brain. Analyzing data pertaining to three and half million children within Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program in United States, Main reported that children using these medicines are two and a half times more likely to develop autism. 
 
CMV is such a brutal virus; however, it is essential to note that people carry the name and banner for researchers like Pesch as well as the clinicians who treat patients like Dr Pesch. “Actually, we know that in utero, CMV has a predilection for really going after the placenta and getting inside it so that it can cause reduced blood flow and nutrients getting to the fetus, it likes the foetal central nervous system a whole lot and gets inside and not only infects those early depolarized foetal brain cells but also alters the very way the brain is created. ” 
 
Public interest public health implications were highlighted by Dr Laetitia Davidovic a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. According to her, they indicate the importance of regular antibody testing for large and systematic screening for CMV during pregnancy as well as around birth. 
 
Still, CMV is not the only viral infection, which has been linked to the emergence of autism. 
 
What viruses cause autism? 
 
The most familiar association of rubella is with autism and it is possibly the most trusted one. Different forms of organ dysfunctions in the foetus can be attributed to rubella particularly when the mother contracts the disease early in pregnancy. Autism has been identified in children with rubella infection; they are more than 200 times the general population. As with CMV, this has been associated with the ability of rubella to infect and produce viral particles within foetal brain cells. 
 
Other related so-called neurotropic viruses which are capable of penetrating the brain barrier, vital in the development of the human brain such as the Zika virus, a tropical disease that is transmitted by mosquito bite, have also been named as potential causes of autism. Children who were born from HIV-positive mothers have also been noted have three times higher chances of being diagnosed to have either of the two; autism, developmental delay, attention disorders. 
 
However, not all viruses require deep invasion into the body and, specifically, the brain of the foetus to cause harm. Sexually transmitted disease, Genital herpes that is prevalent among 15 per cent of women within the child-bearing age causes production of inflammatory molecules that impacts on the growth of foetal brain and the cerebral neocortex. The cerebral neocortex makes up about 50 percent of the brain’s volume and plays a part in the functions of attention, thought, perception and episodic memory. Research which was conducted in Norway brought closer relationship between female partners who infected their husbands with genital herpes in the first six months of their pregnancy as doubled odds of the baby boy to be diagnosed as an autistic. 
 
Other data have also indicated that there is a heightened chance of autism, ID [intellectual disability] and schizophrenia when the mother is hospitalised with flu during pregnancy. ‘This certainly makes you think about the relationship between an inflammatory response and autism in the child particularly if the child is a foetus who might have a certain genetic predisposition to autism in the first instance’ says Dr Pesch. 
 
In what way can viruses impact the brain’s development and operations? 
 
At times, these viruses such as CMV will result in direct damage to the growing brain and the consequences that stem from such damages can be severe. “For example, some foetuses with severe congenital CMV infection have severe brain injury from the infection and may not survive the pregnancy,” prenatal-neonatal neurologist from the United States at Children’s National Hospital Dr. Sarah Mulkey. 
 
However, in other kinds, the effects of the viruses at the small and complex matrices of the cell components that form the brain may not be as dramatic as one might expect. Instead of eliminating these cells, they can alter their function, the way they wire and how position themselves in a detailed layout as the brain enlarges. Dr Pesch explains the majority of the changes are not necessarily reflected on the brain MRI. 
 
According to Dr Pesch, CMV is also capable of controlling certain genes to prevent the differentiation of the brain to acquire the characteristic folds. This leads to what is termed developmental delay, not because the brain cells are not there or because their growth has somehow stunted, but because the surface area of the brain is less and therefore, more cells cannot be developed. 
 
Lamprecht said CMV is capable of suppressing a gene in the foetal brain and when that gene is knocked out, it can further lead to a smooth brain. “Thus, indeed, CMV alters how brains are made. ” 

It is also probable that some neonatal viral infections could alter the immature baby’s microbiome and subsequently the brain through the gut-brain axis, the numerous connections between the brain and the infant’s stool. Data from a recently held conference also disclosed that Mark Schleiss, a professor of paediatrics at the Minnesota University, established differences in gut microbiomes in children with CMV. 
 
How inflammation and the immune system affect the baby 
 
We now know that a virus that does not directly invades the foetal brain is sufficient to bring havoc. Yet, one of the reasons why there are higher rates of autism in the children of pregnant women that have been hospitalised with an infection is because severe infection can provoke a cytokine storm, a sort of inflammatory storm in the mother’s body.

During the instances where the immune system of a mother is producing high levels of inflammatory molecules known as cytokines, the babies developing in the womb have their brains affected by these cytokines via the bloodstream and therefore they are also affected in their developmental process. For the same reason, pregnant women with autoimmune conditions such as Sjogrens syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis, are believed to be more likely to give birth to an autistic child. 
 
As for the reason why chronic viral infections as HIV- or genital herpes – are associated with autism, this process is also connected with the immune system, but in a quite different way. As it is well known, immunity fighters in the body produces antibodies that can counteract foreign infections; it is now also fully understood that the same immunity fighter can also produce autoantibodies that target the body’s own tissue. 
 
It has been established that 10-12% of the mothers of the children diagnosed with autism possess autoantibodies. Another theory is that in some viruses like HIV and herpes, which penetrates the host DNA so deeply, they have a way of immorally boosting a woman’s immune system in such a way as to produce antibodies that will hunt and destroy a developing foetus. 
 
“That is, viral infections in pregnancy trigger the stimulation of the maternal immune system and immunization of the body,” says Pesch. “It might pass through the placenta and affect the developing foetal brain. ” 
 
What can you do? 
 
According to Dr Davidovic these new findings are really important to stress the importance of proper vaccination of pregnant women against such viral infections as flu or rubella to decrease as many risks, including that of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. She also raises the issues of education on the need to practice good personal hygiene in order to avoid getting exposed to CMV particularly during pregnancy andcolostral transmission as CMV is present in body fluids like saliva and urine and pregnant women should avoid sharing items with other people. 
 
Dr Pesch’s discovery has also served to enhance the need to come up with a vaccine for CMV which may actually be within the reach if the he informed discovery that Pfizer, Moderna among other manufacturers of vaccines are also developing cmv vaccines. 
 
Expectant mothers, who have genital herpes, are counselled to take anti-viral drugs to minimize the possibility of the baby being infected. For those who are positive to HIV, these are extremly important, these are antiretrovirals. 
 
Psychiatric epidemiologist of Columbia University, Dr Blake Turner opines that to a certain extent, he concurs with the opinion that vaccines against common pregnancy sicknesses could significantly lower AS rates. Since, as has been previously mentioned, autism may have an interaction of various factors, including genetics and dietary and environmental factors, it may not be quite that simple. 
 
In a study that we did, that essentially looked at the association between maternal infection during pregnancy and autism, we found out that elimination of these diseases would have a large percent point increase in the prevalence of autism, largely because of how common these diseases are,” Prof Tilley stated. “But what vaccines and antivirals may do themselves [to the developing foetus] That would be something to look at. ” 
 
Dr Pesch is expectant that her results will help to increase the understanding of the dangers of maternal infection in both medical institutions’ staff and ordinary people, and in the end, contribute to the improvement of practices concerning the screening of pregnant women. 
 
Because of these links between the gut and the brain and the probability that these infections may set brain developmental changes via disturbing the microbiome, Dr Pesch has started to suggest that parents could try to give probiotics to their toddlers, in spite of the fact that this is not proven strategies / means. “It is a complete guess,” Another popular statement is. “But it certainly won’t hurt. ” 
 
My autistic daughter was born with a CMV infection Experts have said that a mother’s way of holding her child could change after the child had been diagnosed with a condition like this. 
 
Indeed, Dr Megan Pesch, who was in the process of conducting a research on the link between CMV and autism got a rude shocker when her three year old daughter was diagnosed as being autistic. 
 
“I had suspected it,” she said. “Of course, it was Covid time, so she did not go to nursery anymore, but when she was approximately two and a half, she changed and was less actively interested in faces, and although she would look at me from time to time, she wanted to do her own thing rather independently. ” 
 
It was rather paradoxical to hear that – just at the moment when Dr Pesch fitted the components of her analysis together. However, none of the other three children were born normal; her daughter in particular had been born with a CMV infection. The mother had been motivated to begin the study by her employment at a paediatric clinic because she was able to witness many otherwise healthy children suffer from life-altering effects due to congenital CMV. 
 
Only when doctors realized that Pesch’s daughter was receiving treatment for deafness at three months of age was Pesch informed that her daughter had been a patient with HIV. “I asked if she had CMV and they said it was unlikely,” as she like to recall throughout the entire process. “I requested a test anyhow but they don’t know how to test her. she had heel prick newborn screening test and a specimen of dried blood was still available. I asked them to send it to University of Washington, got the result, they detected CMV in it. Thus, it can be seen that most of the times, there is no CMV diagnosis. 
 
At first, she never observed any developmental difficulties in the child apart from difficulty in speaking. ‘That was quite reasonable because she did not have any sounds,’ said Dr Pesch. “However, as she has been growing up, other typical autistic traits like, not wanting to look into the eyes, and selective interest in one or two things that she is fascinated with or particular special items. ” 
 
For instance, she states that her daughter is obsessed with the baby carriage for her doll which she insists goes ‘absolutely everywhere’. Though this could be comparable with other children, especially girls of the same age , Dr Pesch insists that her daughter takes it to the next level. 
 
“Oh, she is so involved and quite emotional about it”, she said. “That stroller follows us virtually everywhere, you can’t just tell her, no, you cannot take the stroller inside the supermarket or through to the airplane. ” Maybe she has been ethically wounded to a certain extent. When it comes to chores she struggles to comprehend why something she really wants and feels so strongly and passionately about cannot be done by her. Yet it is also quite cute, or rather, cute in its own rather unconventional way. ” 
 
Despite after speaking with Dr Pesch recommending probiotics to other parents with toddlers, she has not been feeding her daughter the probiotics because she now accepts her daughter’s situation as it is. 

“We look at her as if her autism helps define her, just as her deafness does,” she says. “I believe that if it is a family with infants who were born with congenital CMV but do not have any signs associated with autism, it is something that one might try…I am an autism researcher and if somebody proposed it to me when she was two, I would have probably at least given it a go; now she is who she is, and we are just in that process with her.