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Page 33

allied

academies

Nov12-13, 2018 | Paris, France

Central Nervous System & Therapeutics

International Conference on

Journal of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Research | Volume 3

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 linkedtoCNSdevelopment toproduceacritical 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 thevaccine. In someat-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