The role of oxidative stress in the occurrence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurological disorder, which cause is still unknown. Diagnosis of this disorder depends on the child's symptoms and behaviors. Therefore, there is an urgent need for biomarkers that can be used to diagnose this disorder. Among these indicators are oxidative stress biomarkers, which is one of the causes, whose association with autism spectrum disorder, is being studied. One common biomarker of oxidative stress is Malondialdehyde (MDA), which was measured in 30 plasma samples of children with autism spectrum disorder and compared with samples of healthy children who matched the patients for age and sex (controls were divided into: 15 siblings of the child with autism spectrum disorder and 15 non-sibling controls). And it was found that there was a statistical difference between the two groups of children with autism spectrum disorder and all the controls, and between children with autism spectrum disorder and the non-sibling controls, and between the siblings and the non-sibling controls (P=0.0001), while it was found that there was no statistical difference between the children with autism spectrum disorder and sibling controls (P=0.656). All of this indicates the role of oxidative stress in causing autism spectrum disorder, and the possibility of using its biomarkers for early detection of autism spectrum disorder.