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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