Comments on: Natural Killer Cells and the Search for Biomarkers for Autism

By: Anon

Anon — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:16:49 +0000

Jill – my family have CFS, Aspergers and MS.

It would be interesting to compare this gene expression study on autism with Jonathan Kerr’s gene expression studies on CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis).

I know that this study cannot say anything about cause of autism, but I have been wondering whether it is possible that if the symptoms of autism are caused partly by excessive brain plasticity, if the excessive brain plasticity has been triggered as the brain’s attempt to repair some kind of damage.

George Ebers on genetic susceptibility to MS is interesting stuff.

By: The Puzzling Spectrum of Autism Causes

The Puzzling Spectrum of Autism Causes — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:27:21 +0000

[...] What do TV, ultrasounds, insufficient vitamin D, air pollution, a mother having the flu while pregnant, mercury, have to do with each other? [...]

By: kristal

kristal — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:03:49 +0000

The answers you are searching for will never be discovered until you focus on central control and command. That is the central nervous system. I have been observing something I discovered over a decade ago. It’s a virus. The virus is a lenti-retrovirus. It uses a special enzyme(reversetranscriptese) to operate with. It is also an intracellular virus. Our brain is where it resides. It can be found in all bodily fluids. They call it SIV(simian immune virus). I call it CNSV(central nervous system virus). It also has been called the master of disguise. It has eluded 99.9% of all humans on this planet. I could continue to educate you about this virus,but ten years of facts cannot be explained in this e-mail.I have always felt a moral and ethical obligation to tell someone about the facts,symptoms, and microscopic details that I discoverd about this virus. Sincerely Kristal

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:13:57 +0000

Interesting—-allergies on my husband’s side and also on mine, plus the asthma I had as a child (and no longer do). Both my father-in-law and sister-in-law have MS (though she does not, as far as I know, have symptoms right now).

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:34:45 +0000

I thought this study interesting. At this time, I am leaning of the opinion that autism is somehow linked to autoimmune disorders. I have a family history of allergies, diabetes, MS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, etc. What is really interesting is that there are 3 cases of CFS (2 on the maternal side – 1 on fraternal) which is not all that common. However, I have no idea if anybody could come up with a family history of autoimmune disorders if one looks far enough.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:00:11 +0000

Hi, Harold–
That’s a sweet little attempt at a swipe (even someone like me can see that! Woohoo), but those of us who actually live in the world of science know that our results are out there for interpretation and that many of the people who interpret them will know plenty about what they’re doing, sometimes as much as those of us who did the work. I haven’t said anything on here that’s even a fundamental criticism of the study.

You seem willfully intent on ascribing to me some kind of agenda that is counter to your own, whatever that is. I don’t do agendas because they’re limiting and boring and constrained, and I don’t engage in manufactured controversies or arguments because that’s a complete waste of time. People who pit creationism against evolution do the same thing you appear to be trying to do now–manufacture a debate out of nothing–and it results in an extraordinary amount of nonsensical blather that we could all live without. I can’t even tell what you’re trying to argue here; all I can see is that you are trying to say something about me and my intentions in the process. Don’t. You wouldn’t be able to figure me out even if you knew me personally, and it certainly isn’t going to happen in the virtual world.

What you say here reads like repetitive incomprehensible gibberish to me–I can’t help that interpretation because when an agenda sticks out as much as yours does, I can’t understand the words any more because of the distraction.

Everything I’ve said here about this study is completely defensible under normally accepted standards of scientific discourse among scientists. As for relying only on what the researchers involved in the study have to say about their own work–that’s certainly not something that we in the scientific community would do. We poke and prod and evaluate and expect others to do so, too. If memory serves, some folks in the UK found themselves neck deep in a years’-long sham of a “link” between vaccines and autism because too many people relied on what the researchers who did the study had to say.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:38:31 +0000

So good to hear from you, Harold L. Doherty, and thank you too for this post.

By: Harold L Doherty

Harold L Doherty — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:33:31 +0000

Regan

I agree with your point Regan. That is why I quoted the researchers who were actually involved with the study in question.

Ms Chew

Personal smearing does not become you.

By: Regan

Regan — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:53:29 +0000

Thank you Emily.
I appreciate the perspective and explanation from someone who has the relevant education and professional experience to tell us what the study tells us, and what it doesn’t.
Thanks for taking the time to do so.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:40:00 +0000

@Emily (and thanks for your patience---I'm learning a lot from your careful explanations), Quoting from your response to Harold L. Doherty: "You appear to be constructing an argument not of my own making and attempting to rebut it." This is the usual "comment behavior" of the commenter in question; another blogger noted that Harold L. Doherty likes to build a "straw man army (and here's a parody by Harold L. Doherty of Autism Vox).