Ayoub George
Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
Department of Psychology, Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
J Med Food. 2025 Jan;28(1):12-17. doi: 10.1089/jmf.2023.0180. Epub 2024 Dec 5.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can create significant challenges in behavior and communication. The prevalence of ASD is over 2% among 8-year-old children and the prevalence is similar across the globe. We suggest there are multiple critical periods during the fetal period and early post-natal years that set conditions for neurotypical development or for autism, via mechanisms that impact immunity. One critical period requires folate, a key methyl donor, with insufficient folate conditioning for ASD. Another critical period is altered by oxidative stress or inflammation, possibly linked to insufficient taurine to support microglial immunity, causing inflammatory-triggered alterations of neurotypical development, or by excessive oxidation related to low cysteine availability. We propose that supplementing reduced folate and taurine early in development, including both fetal and post-natal periods, may be most effective in reducing the severity of ASD symptoms by facilitating neurotypical passage through critical neurodevelopmental periods.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种发育性残疾，会在行为和沟通方面造成重大挑战。在8岁儿童中，ASD的患病率超过2%，且全球患病率相似。我们认为，在胎儿期和出生后早期存在多个关键时期，这些时期通过影响免疫的机制为神经典型发育或自闭症设定条件。一个关键时期需要叶酸，它是一种关键的甲基供体，叶酸不足会引发ASD。另一个关键时期会因氧化应激或炎症而改变，这可能与牛磺酸不足无法支持小胶质细胞免疫有关，从而导致炎症引发的神经典型发育改变，或者与半胱氨酸可用性低导致的过度氧化有关。我们建议，在发育早期，包括胎儿期和出生后阶段，补充还原型叶酸和牛磺酸，可能通过促进神经典型通过关键神经发育时期，最有效地减轻ASD症状的严重程度。
