Mother's immunity linked to brain inflammation and development

[natasa778]

http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/c...unity-linked-to-brain-inflammation-in-monkeys

... Last year, Bauman and her colleagues debuted a macaque model of maternal immune activation: They injected pregnant monkeys with a mock flu virus at the end of either the first trimester or the second. Both groups of young macaques show stereotyped and repetitive movements by age 2, the study found. Babies exposed during the first trimester also show abnormal social behaviors.

... Bauman’s team used a tracer called PK11195, which binds to activated microglia, cells associated with brain inflammation that have been linked to autism. Monkeys exposed to an infection in either the first or second trimester show abnormally high levels of inflammation across the whole brain, the study found.

...
The new study found that the brains of the monkeys exposed to maternal infection in the first or second trimester show higher levels of striatal dopamine than in controls.

“We’re pretty excited by these data,” Bauman says. The monkey models “are a nice way to bridge the gap between rodent models and clinical populations.”

It looks like they were unfortunately not checking for differences in immune function of exposed offspring, or their gut microbiome ... which was what rodent studies show, i.e. that prenatal immune insults lead to not only neuroinflammation but also general immune disturbance (tendency for pro-inflammatory overreaction later in life, without actually fighting off pathogens effectively) and gut dysbiosis + leaky gut!

 

[Bob]

...activated microglia, cells associated with brain inflammation...

The issue of dysregulated microglia cells seems to be popping up more and more frequently at the moment.
I hadn't heard of microglia six months ago, and now I seem to come across them every week.

 

[Jon_Tradicionali]

The issue of dysregulated microglia cells seems to be popping up more and more frequently at the moment.
I hadn't heard of microglia six months ago, and now I seem to come across them every week.

It was in M. Van ElZakkers theory that I saw it first almost a year ago. Since then it has gained considerable momentum.

 

[natasa778]

The issue of dysregulated microglia cells seems to be popping up more and more frequently at the moment.
I hadn't heard of microglia six months ago, and now I seem to come across them every week.

It was exactly 10 years ago that John Hopkins team found microgliosis in postmortem autism brains. Now Oxford team is confirming (mostly unpublished). No treatment trials in sight. Things that matter move at snail speed if at all.

 

[natasa778]

Few more recent studies on the topic:

Large study links maternal infection to autism risk

... researchers found that 903 people with autism and 61,642 people without the disorder were born to women who were hospitalized with an infection while pregnant. This translates to a 37 percent increased risk of having a child with autism.

“This provides an important etiologic clue as to the origins of autism.” The link holds up regardless of whether the infection was bacterial, viral or caused by other or unknown pathogens. “To me, that sort of tells you it’s not the agent; it’s the response to the agent,”


also this one:

Infection with group B streptococcus bacteria in pregnant rats triggers brain abnormalities and autism-like behaviors in their pups — but only in males. Researchers presented the unpublished results today at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Group B strep infection is common, affecting up to 30 percent of pregnant women. It rarely causes symptoms, and doctors only test for it two weeks before the baby’s due date.

... “The inflammatory pathway seems to be more prominent in the exposed male fetuses,”

...
The male and female rats both show some sensory impairments. They react strongly to loud sounds even when they’re preceded by softer sounds, a phenomenon called prepulse inhibition. A close look at their brains reveals a thinner frontal cortex and a thicker cingulum — a tract of nerve fibers that connects different brain regions — than in controls.

Male rats also have a thinner corpus callosum, which connects the brain hemispheres, than controls do. And they have larger lateral ventricles, the fluid-filled spaces in both brain hemispheres.