Exposure to 'beneficial bacteria' during pregnancy may reduce the risk of autism

May 28, 2020/PRNewswire
BIOON// A new animal study by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder shows that exposing stressed mothers to beneficialbacteriain the late stages of pregnancy that can prevent their offspring from developing autism-like diseasesstudy, published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, marks the latest in a series of animal and human studies that show that exposure to specific immunomodulating microorganisms inhibits inflammation and has a positive effect on the brain and central nervous systemthis is one of the first studies to show that this exposure affects fetal neurodevelopment during pregnancy, and while more research is needed, it may open the door to new prenatal interventions"
It shows that you can develop microbial interventions to reduce the risk of neurodevelopmental syndromes like autism," said co-author Christopher Lowry, an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Physiologyimage source: https://cn.bing.com
professor of psychology and neuroscience and senior author Daniel Barth, said long-term studies have shown that in humans, stress during pregnancy can trigger systemic inflammation of the mother and fetus, a risk factor for autismin a previous study, Barth found that when mice felt stressed, they were given a drug called tebutarin, which is often used to delay preterm birth, and that their offspring exhibited a symptom similar to autism -- both social deficits and repetitive behaviorsThey also suffer from epileptic symptoms"The fundamental question for this new study is whether we can use immunomodulating microorganisms to prevent the long-term effects of environmental stress during pregnancy," said lead author Zachariah Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at Bath LaboratoryIn the study, researchers exposed mice to mild stress and gave them tebutyrin at a time when they were in the middle of pregnancyhalf of the mice also received a series of injections of a hot sterilizing agent called bovine pox Previous studies have shown that the bacteria have a lasting anti-inflammatory effect on the brain The third group of mice received no treatment at 2 months and 4 months of age, the researchers conducted a series of tests on the mice to assess their level of social interaction and whether they exhibited repetitive behavior as in previous studies, mice whose mothers were stressed and took tebutyrin showed autism-like behavior But the vaccinated mice had no symptoms Smith said: "The vaccine against bovine pox branch bacteria seems to provide some protection for the negative impact of environmental stress in the development process, particularly for autism spectrum disorder (ASD-like) behavior." "
vaccination does not seem to prevent seizures But because epilepsy tends to develop later in life, the researchers plan to repeat the experiment with a larger sample size and longer treatment period autism and epilepsy often occur in humans at the same time, and about 30 percent of people with autism exhibit epilepsy symptoms, such as seizures The researchers speculate that the inflammation caused by stress may have played a role in both cases "If we continue to treat for longer, we can also prevent some cases of epilepsy, but more research is necessary," Lowry said researchers warn that they are not developing an "autism vaccine" and that they are not suggesting that microbial interventions can reverse diseases in children already autistic But their research does reinforce the idea that exposure to beneficial microorganisms can play a key role in brain development in the womb finally, Lowry envisions a day when mothers who are considered to be at particular risk of neurodevelopmental disorders can be given a special formula for probiotics or vaccinations to support healthy brain development Lowry said: "As far as I know, this is the first mother intervention to prevent autism-like syndrome, including behavioral and social interventions If this can be replicated in humans, it will be far-reaching also, they say, mothers should be aware of the risks of underlying emotional and environmental stress during pregnancy, including the drug tebutyrin they should try to be exposed to beneficial bacteria through fermented foods such as yogurt and pickles, and even spend time in nature (biovalleybioon.com) References: Exposure to 'good bacteria' hadh whey buffers risk of autism-like syndrome
Zachariah Z Smith et al, Effects of immunization with the heat-killed Mycobacterium vaccae on autism spectrum like-like-disorder-a-wild-card and epilepsin a rat DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.034