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June 10-11, 2019 | Edinburgh, Scotland
Central Nervous System and Therapeutics
2
nd
International Conference on
Journal of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Research | Volume 4
allied
academies
Early childhood vaccines and regressive Autism: Is there a connection?
Sarah Adelaide Crawford
Southern Connecticut State University, USA
R
egressive autism may be defined as a rapid-onset loss
of previously acquired milestones in central nervous
system (CNS) development that occurs usually within
the first several years of life and may also be associated
with seizures or other abnormal CNS activity. Clinically,
this abnormal response to vaccination is termed “vaccine
encephalopathy”, in which developmentally normal infants
or children display a sudden developmental regression,
reduced developmental progression and/or seizures with
rapid onset following vaccine administration. That the
dramatic CNS changes associated with regressive autism
so rapidly follow the administration of vaccines is highly
suggestive of a causative connection which, however, has
been disputed by some reputable epidemiological studies.
The Quantitative Threshold Hypothesis (QTE) proposes that
autism results from the accumulated exposure to genetic
and environmental causes that impinge upon immunological
factors linked to CNS development to produce a critical
incidence threshold for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The proposed connection between vaccines and regressive
autism is based on an application of this model, in which at-
risk individuals may develop regressive autism and associated
sequelae in response to vaccine administration if this causes
an individual to cross the threshold boundary for CNS
impairment. The physiological basis of the proposed vaccine/
autism connection results from the fundamental association
between vaccine-induced programming of adaptive immune
system responses and its direct dependence upon innate
immune system inflammatory responses to the vaccine. In
some at-risk individuals predisposed to neuroinflammation
due to the combined effects of genetic and environmental
immuno-stimulatory risk factors, the threshold to
immunopathology resulting in neuroinflammation and
impaired neural function may thus be induced by vaccine
administration. This paper will present risk-factor assessment
parameters that can be used preventively to identify
children for whom vaccine protocols should be adjusted to
reduce the incidence of regressive neurological impairment.
e
:
crawfords2@southernct.edu