[Yoda]

Autism breakthrough as 'genetic signature' in babies as young as a year found; blood test in the works | Space, Military and Medicine | News.com.au

A simple blood test is now being developed and may be available in one to two years, Professor Eric Courchesne will tell the Asia Pacific Autism conference in Adelaide today.

This discovery really changes the landscape of our understanding of causes and effective treatments," says the director of the Autism Centre of Excellence at the University of California in San Diego.

This is going to lead to much better treatments at a much earlier stage and a large percentage of children having an excellent outcome."

He said the several gene networks that are a common thread in autism have been identified for the first time.

We've also identified four gene networks that are a 'biological signature' of autism in babies as young as 12 months.

A blood screening test is being developed.

At this stage it's looking very promising that the blood screening test will have high accuracy, specificity and sensitivity for children at risk of autism.

[rosska]

Whilst the fact that they will be able to more accurately detect Autism in children is great, because it means that they'll be able to get better treatment from a younger age instead of being like myself and not getting diagnosed until they're an adult, this also causes a bit of fear for me.

What if they find a way to 'cure' autism in children using gene therapy? Then what, we have a world where there are no more autistic people? Some of the greatest advancements our species has made have been thanks to autistic people. Plus, if they end up curing it in children what happens to those of us who are adults? Would we suddenly be looked upon as the "last of a defective breed"?

/mixed feelings

[H3rmit]

Originally Posted by rosska

Would we suddenly be looked upon as the "last of a defective breed"?

I wouldn't mind that for my sake. It has a ring to it.
On the other hand, autism is a spectrum, so is the test going to catch everyone? Likely not.

Hrm.

There is no real information at all about the proposed blood test- what precisely it is screening for or anything. I'm really... Um, challenged to come up with how that might work. But I'm not a full-fledged member and spokesperson of Autism Speaks, so what do I know...

Also, I couldn't find any references for the article and nothing published by this guy [Eric Courchesne] about blood tests and autism.

It's possible I didn't dig deep enough or in the right places but... I still call shenanigans on this...

[tesseract49]

Originally Posted by rosska

Whilst the fact that they will be able to more accurately detect Autism in children is great, because it means that they'll be able to get better treatment from a younger age instead of being like myself and not getting diagnosed until they're an adult, this also causes a bit of fear for me.

What if they find a way to 'cure' autism in children using gene therapy? Then what, we have a world where there are no more autistic people? Some of the greatest advancements our species has made have been thanks to autistic people. Plus, if they end up curing it in children what happens to those of us who are adults? Would we suddenly be looked upon as the "last of a defective breed"?

/mixed feelings

I feel exactly the same way.