Untargeted Metabolomics Screen of Mid-pregnancy Maternal Serum and Autism in Offspring.
Beate Ritz, Qi Yan, Karan Uppal and 7 others
PMID 32496662WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers of children later diagnosed with autism had different mid-pregnancy serum metabolite patterns than controls, especially in steroid hormone and pyrimidine pathways.
This is an association in 52 cases and 62 controls, not a clinical test.
Key findings
01Seven metabolic pathways were associated with autism status, and the largest was C21-steroid hormone biosynthesis and metabolism.
02The selected features separated cases and controls at 89% for HILIC and 81% for C18 in validation.
03Seven metabolites were confirmed with authentic standards; quinoline was negatively associated with autism, while the others were positively associated.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Only 52 mothers of children with autism and 62 control mothers were analysed after exclusions, so this is a small exploratory study. The participants were selected from women with low traffic-related air pollution and no measured exposure to selected pesticides, so the results may not apply to all pregnancies. Autism status was determined from service records and diagnostic codes, not from assessments done for this study. The case group was 90% male and the control group 74% male, so the original matching by sex was not retained. Chemical identities were partly inferred by computer matching, and only 7 metabolites were confirmed with authentic standards. The study found associations with autism status, not causes, and the authors say the pathways need confirmation in independent populations. Covariates came mostly from birth certificates, so diet, other exposures, and genetics were not measured.
Declared interests
The paper is listed as supported by N.I.H., Extramural. No author conflict-of-interest statement is reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the 89% and 81% separation rates as a clinical screening result. It came from a small analysis of 52 cases and 62 controls, and the authors say the pathways need confirmation in independent populations.