In recent years, a number of research pinpointed the connection between our gut microbiota and our overall health.
From our mental well-being to how we react to stress and our vulnerability to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes, the impact of our gut flora is far-reaching.
The World Health Organization defines autism as a diverse group of conditions related to development of the brain that affect social interaction and communication.
Further, WHO states that people with autism “often have co-occurring conditions, including epilepsy, depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as challenging behaviours such as difficulty sleeping and self-injury.” The intellectual capacities of these people wary from one individual to another.
The research suggests that our mother’s microbiota has greater influence on us developing autism than our own.
“The microbiome can shape the developing brain in multiple ways,” John Lukens, lead researcher and PhD student from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said in a statement.
“The microbiome is really important to the calibration of how the offspring’s immune system is going to respond to an infection or injury or stress.”
So far, research showed that this cytokine plays a role in diseases such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis, and is vital in defending the body against fungal infections. However, it also appears to influence brain development in the womb.
Scientists performed the research on mice with different gut microbiota. While one group had bacteria linked to a stronger inflammatory response triggered by IL-17a, the control group did not.
When they supressed IL-17a artificially at the pups, both groups displayed neurotypical behavior, but later on, when the human interference stopped and the mice grew naturally, those of the first group showed symptoms typical of autism, such as repetitive behavior.
Afterwords, researchers used the feces of the mice in the first group to perform a fecal transplant on the mice in the second group to effectively transfer the pro-inflammatory gut bacteria. As suspected, the mice from the second group also developed autism-like behavior.
“In terms of translating our work to humans, I think the next big step would be to identify features of the microbiome in pregnant mothers that correlate with autism risk,” Lukens said. “I think the really important thing is to figure out what kind of things can be used to modulate the microbiome in the mother as effectively and safely as we can.”
While blocking IL-17a also might offer a way to prevent autism, Lukens said it comes with certain risks. “If you think about pregnancy, the body is basically accepting foreign tissue, which is a baby,” he said. “As a result, maintenance of embryonic health demands a complex balance of immune regulation, so people tend to shy away from manipulating the immune system during pregnancy.”
He suggested there are plenty of other molecules to explore, as IL-17a is just a tiny part of a much bigger picture.
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Australia’s Ally Langdon couldn’t hide the sadness bubbling inside when she spoke with a mom and dad, who were forced into the painful decision of taking the life of the young girl whom they had given life to only 13 years before.
The young girl died after falling prey to a viral craze called chroming, and Langdon, also a mom, struggled to hold back her tears.
Appearing on A Current Affair with host Ally Langdon, Andrea and Paul Haynes shared their story of how their 13-year-old daughter Esra Haynes died after following a social media trend called chroming, that involves inhaling toxic chemicals through the mouth or nose to get high.
Referred to as “determined, fun, cheeky and talented” by the Montrose Football Netball Club that she co-captained, Esra was a young athlete who raced BMX bikes with her brothers, and led her team to a national aerobics’ championship in Queensland.
On March 31, Esra went to a friend’s home for a sleepover and, for what would be a fatal high, she sniffed a can of aerosol deodorant and went into cardiac arrest, sustaining irreparable brain damage.
“It was just the regular routine of going to hang out with her mates,” her mom Andrea, told Langdon in the interview.
Her father Paul added: “We always knew where she was and we knew who she was with. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary…To get this phone call at that time of night, (it) was one of the calls no parent ever wants to have to receive, and we unfortunately got that call: ‘Come and get your daughter.’”
Langdon explains that Esra’s friends thought she was having a panic attack, “but after inhaling deodorant, her body was actually starting to shut down, she was in cardiac arrest and no one at the sleepover used cardiac arrest.”
When Andrea arrived at Esra’s side, paramedics were trying to revive Esra and told mom that her daughter had been chroming, something she had never heard of until that moment.
Esra was taken to hospital held onto the hope that their baby girl would recover. After all, her heart and lungs were strong so maybe she would make it through.
After eight days on life support, Paul and Andrea were told that Esra’s brain was damaged “beyond repair and we had to have that decision to turn off the machine.”
Struggling with their words, and reliving their worst day, her parents explained the pain of ending their daughter’s life.
Asked to bring family and friends to the hospital for their final goodbyes, Esra’s dad said: “It was a very, very difficult thing to do to such a young soul. She was put onto a bed so we could lay with her. We cuddled her until the end.”
Overwhelmed by the parent’s heartache, and a mother of two young children, Langdon was unable to contain her emotions and teared up.
The shattered siblings of a Year 8 student who died from chroming say their mission is now to save others from the same fate.Don Valley teenager Esra Haynes went into cardiac arrest after inhaling deodorant.#9News | WATCH LIVE 6pm
After Esra died in early April, Paul says the family is completely “broken,” and Esra’s siblings, Imogen, Seth and Charlie are “shattered.”
“It was really devastating, devastating for everyone involved, all her friends as well,” Paul said. “It’s been the most difficult, traumatic time any parent could go through. We haven’t been sleeping, we’ve hardly been eating, we haven’t been smiling–we’re not ourselves…But it’s not just affected us, it’s the community as well.”
Never having heard of chroming until it killed their daughter, Paul and his wife are on a crusade to bring awareness to the deadly viral craze–easily achieved with store-bought products like deodorant, paint, hairspray or even permanent markers–that’s increasingly popular among teens.
Speaking with a local news station, Paul said he wished he knew of chroming when Esra was still alive, so he could have warned her of the dangers: “If we were educated and the word had been put out there, we would have had the discussion around our kitchen table for sure.”