In this proposal, which is a renewal of a previously funded award, we will investigate maternal environmental factors during pregnancy and risk of childhood autism in the offspring from a national birth cohort in Finland (the Finnish Prenatal Study of Autism, FiPS-A). No previous study of autism has ever examined the proposed prenatal factors by maternal biomarkers and their relationship to perinatal complications and growth velocity of the child's head circumference during infancy. The putative risk factors include environmental toxins (including PCBs and insecticides) and infections (influenza and Chlamydia trachomatis).
We aim to address these questions in pregnancies of a large sample of autism cases and matched controls using maternal serum samples that were drawn and stored in nearly all pregnancies in Finland over the course of the study. The children with autism and their matched controls have been identified from detailed databases that contain diagnoses on nearly all cases of autism in Finland. These subjects have been linked to the maternal serum samples and to other registries including data on perinatal complications. In this study, the maternal serum samples of autism cases and of matched controls will be analyzed for these environmental factors, and their occurrence during pregnancy will be compared between the cases and controls. We shall also test whether these maternal environmental factors during pregnancy are related to a select number of other pregnancy and birth complications and to abnormalities in the velocity of head circumference during infancy. This research has the potential to result in a better understanding of potential risk factors for autism and of convergen, as well as divergent, developmental pathways that lead to the illness. Since the risk factors investigated in this study are relatively common in the population, their discovery may lead to prevention of cases of autism by straightforward public measures in pregnant women, including reduction of exposure to environmental contaminants, and prevention of infections, such as influenza and sexually transmitted diseases during pregnancy. These studies could also result in an improved understanding of the mechanisms by which prenatal insults alter postnatal brain development in autism and, along with other measures, potentially target infants at high risk for the disorder for intervention. In summary, the proposed work builds on an existing national birth cohort, and is anticipated to have considerable impact on an emerging and potentially transformative area of research epidemiology and clinical/basic neuroscience, as well as lead to improvements in current public health policy recommendations for care during pregnancy.
This study has significant relevance for public health, as it is aimed at identifying prenatal risk factors for autism that have never before been investigated in maternal sera during pregnancy and their relationship to birth complications and head size. This may offer the potential for prevention of autism by straightforward public health measures including reduction of exposure to environmental contaminants and prevention of infections. These studies could also result in an improved understanding of how prenatal insults alter brain development in childhood in autism cases and, along with other measures, potentially identify infants at high risk for the disorder for intervention.
| Brown, Alan S; Meyer, Urs (2018) Maternal Immune Activation and Neuropsychiatric Illness: A Translational Research Perspective. Am J Psychiatry :appiajp201817121311 |
| Brown, Alan S; Cheslack-Postava, Keely; Rantakokko, Panu et al. (2018) Association of Maternal Insecticide Levels With Autism in Offspring From a National Birth Cohort. Am J Psychiatry :appiajp201817101129 |
| Timonen-Soivio, Laura; Vanhala, Raija; Malm, Heli et al. (2016) Brief Report: Syndromes in Autistic Children in a Finnish Birth Cohort. J Autism Dev Disord 46:2780-4 |
| Jokiranta-Olkoniemi, Elina; Cheslack-Postava, Keely; Sucksdorff, Dan et al. (2016) Risk of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Among Siblings of Probands With Autism Spectrum Disorders. JAMA Psychiatry 73:622-9 |
| Brown, Alan S; Surcel, Heljä-Marja; Hinkka-Yli-Salomäki, Susanna et al. (2015) Maternal thyroid autoantibody and elevated risk of autism in a national birth cohort. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 57:86-92 |
| Lehti, Venla; Cheslack-Postava, Keely; Gissler, Mika et al. (2015) Parental migration and Asperger's syndrome. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 24:941-8 |
| Lehti, Venla; Hinkka-Yli-Salomäki, Susanna; Cheslack-Postava, Keely et al. (2015) Maternal socio-economic status based on occupation and autism spectrum disorders: a national case-control study. Nord J Psychiatry 69:523-30 |
| Timonen-Soivio, Laura; Sourander, Andre; Malm, Heli et al. (2015) The association between autism spectrum disorders and congenital anomalies by organ systems in a Finnish national birth cohort. J Autism Dev Disord 45:3195-203 |
| Timonen-Soivio, Laura; Vanhala, Raija; Malm, Heli et al. (2015) The association between congenital anomalies and autism spectrum disorders in a Finnish national birth cohort. Dev Med Child Neurol 57:75-80 |
| McKeague, Ian W; Brown, Alan S; Bao, Yuanyuan et al. (2015) Autism with intellectual disability related to dynamics of head circumference growth during early infancy. Biol Psychiatry 77:833-40 |
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