The rush to report on MMR/regressive autism study
Yesterday the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the Times online reported about a study on research on an MMR vaccine/autism link being undertaken by Dr. Stephen Walker of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina. However, Dr. Walker’s study is funded by the National Autism Association (NAA), which endorses an MMR vaccine/autism link. The Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the Times online articles give the impression that Dr. Walker’s research has or is being published when actually, it is only being presented as a poster presentation at the International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR).
Further, there are serious questions about the experimental design, quality and integrity of the data collected by Dr. Walker, as well as conflicts of interest among its authors. According to the results of Dr. Walker’s study, 82 children with regressive autism and bowel disease, 70 have so far proved positive for the measles virus. The team will be examining a total of 275 children with regressive autism and bowel disease.
International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), and the media, would do well to be wary of what research they rush to present to the public.
12 opinions for The rush to report on MMR/regressive autism study
María Luján
May 28, 2006 at 5:11 am
Hi Kristina
Do you have the information about in what medical journal was published? Thank you in advance
María Luján
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 28, 2006 at 5:22 am
Hi Maria. According to the story below, the findings will be presented this week in Montreal. It’s not clear if they have actually been published.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/28/wmmr28.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/28/ixnews.html
The conference is the 5th International Meeting for Autism Research.
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 28, 2006 at 5:29 am
Here is the abstract for Dr. Walker’s paper to be presented at the Montral conference (International Meeting for Autism Research).
PS3.30
PERSISTENT ILEAL MEASLES VIRUS IN A
LARGE COHORT OF REGRESSIVE AUTISTIC
CHILDREN WITH ILEOCOLITIS AND
LYMPHONODULAR HYPERPLASIA:
REVISITATION OF AN EARLIER STUDY Steve
Walker, Karin Hepner, Jeffrey Segal, Arthur Krigsman,
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Background: Autistic enterocolitis, consisting of a
nonspecific ileocolitis coupled with ileocolonic
lymphonodular hyperplasia (LNH), was first introduced
as a new, potentially virus-induced disease entity eight
years ago in a group of ASD children with developmental
regression.
Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to
examine ileal biopsy tissue in a large cohort of pediatric
patients who carry a diagnosis of regressive autism and
whose chronic gastrointestinal symptoms warranted
diagnostic endoscopic evaluation, for evidence of measles
virus RNA.
Methods: Patients who had been diagnosed with autism
and who were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist for
evaluation of chronic GI symptoms were eligible to
participate in this IRB approved study. For each patient,
medical histories, vaccination records, histopathology
reports, and ileocolonoscopic biopsy tissue were available
for evaluation. Terminal ileum (TI) biopsy tissue was
assayed by RT-PCR for the presence of measles virus
RNA and PCR-positive samples were sequenced.
Results: Medical and clinical data have been collected for
>275 patients who fit the study inclusion criteria. PCR
analysis on TI biopsy tissue from an initial 82 patients
showed that 70 (85%) were positive for the F gene
amplicon. Fourteen have been verified by DNA sequence
and an additional 56 amplicons are being sequenced now.
Work is ongoing to assay the remaining specimens (~200)
and to identify and assay relevant control tissue samples.
Conclusions: Preliminary results from this large cohort of
pediatric autistic patients with chronic GI symptoms
confirm earlier findings of measles virus RNA in the
terminal ileum and support an association between
measles virus and ileocolitis /LNH.
Sponsors: ARI; NAA; individual donations
Lisa Randall
May 28, 2006 at 5:51 am
For heaven’s sake, were there no controls in this study? Is there any reason at all to suppose that even if their finding in the autistic children is correct, it is any different from what would be found in non-autistic children?
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 28, 2006 at 6:33 am
There doesn’t appear to be. I have also been wondering how the children in the study were found and selected.
Michelle Dawson
May 28, 2006 at 6:57 am
As I just wrote here http://www.quicktopic.com/27/H/vJvhV4fDnBgw7/m4365 , there is a study re the MMR and autism at IMFAR 2006 that does have a control group.
PS3.26
NO EVIDENCE OF PERSISTING MEASLES VIRUS IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS FROM CHILDREN WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER
Yasmin L D’Souza, Eric Fombonne, Brian J Ward, Division of Infectious Diseases, McGill University Health Center (MUHC)
BACKGROUND: Claims of an association between measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) and the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are based primarily on the identification of measles virus (MV) nucleic acids in tissues and body fluids by PCR. These data come almost exclusively from a single group of investigators, Uhlmann and colleagues (Mol Pathol 2002; 55: 84-90).
OBJECTIVES: We sought to replicate the PCR assays used by Uhlmann et al. to determine whether or not MV nucleic acids persist in children with ASD compared with non-ASD children.
METHODS: We recruited 54 children with ASD and 34 developmentally normal controls referred to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated and up to three real-time reversetranscriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays were performed. These assays targeted the N, F and H genes of MV using the primer pairs published by Uhlmann et al., with detection by SYBR Green I. Amplicons from positive reactions were sequenced.
RESULTS: The Uhlmann primer-based assays gave rise to a large number of positive reactions in both groups. For example, a positive signal was observed in 93% of ASD samples and 100% of the control samples using the F gene assay. Almost all of the positive reactions in the assays were eliminated by melting curve analysis and amplicon band-size on agarose gels. The amplicons for the remaining positive reactions were cloned and sequenced. No sample from either ASD or control groups was found to contain nucleic acids from any MV gene.
CONCLUSION: There is no evidence of MV persistence in the PBMC of children with ASD.
Dad Of Cameron
May 28, 2006 at 8:02 am
“It’s not clear if they have actually been published.”
It’s not clear that it would actually be published, that may not be what Krigsman does. Perhaps he doesn’t believe in real peer review. Do a PubMed search for him - 1 asthma paper. Do a PubMed search for Krigsman Autism - 0 results.
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Kristina Chew, PhD
May 28, 2006 at 8:46 am
D of C, it all makes one wonder if some reporter may have been scouring the IMFAR program and pulled out Walker’s study since it’s on a “newsworthy” topic.
Camille
May 28, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Kristina, I think that NAA got some reporters to push it ahead of the story… Walker’s thing is just a poster, by the way, not a speaking presentation. They stand next to their poster in a hallway, usually, and answer questions. Michelle Dawson will be at IMFAR. yaaay!
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 28, 2006 at 1:28 pm
The IMFAR program makes it clear that ARI, NAA, and “donations” funded Walker’s research. Very curious to hear what Michelle Dawson has to say—
Autism Vox » Dr. Stephen Walker on MMR: No link 2
Jun 28, 2006 at 6:45 am
[…] Dr. Walker’s research on the MMR vaccine and regressive autism was presented as a poster presentation at last week’s International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR). Despite Dr. Walker’s own disavowal of a link between the MMR vaccine and “regressive autism,” this is the first paragraph of an article entitled “New fears over MMR jab take-up” on today’s Wales.co.uk: […]
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