Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Immunology of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Published:

Heat shock protein 90 antibodies in autism

Molecular Psychiatry volume 7, pages S26–S28 (2002)Cite this article

Autism is a complex condition of multifactorial origin, including possible genetic, infectious, and immunological factors. Autism shares features with autoimmune disorders, including genetic susceptibility, association with viral infection, immunologic dysfunction and difference in gender prevalence. Abnormalities of cellular, humoral and innate immunity have been associated with autism. Autoantibodies to a variety of CNS and neuronal targets—including myelin basic protein,1 frontal cortex,2 5HT1A receptors3 and cerebellar neurofilament4—have been detected in autistic subjects. Antineuronal autoantibodies have also been observed in patients with other disorders characterized by repetitive behaviors, including autism, Tourette's syndrome (TS),5 attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),6 and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).7 CNS infection in early life may trigger autoantibodies that cross-react with CNS antigens, leading to disorders with compulsive motor dysfunction, with age at initial infection determining the ultimate phenotype. It has been hypothesized that autism may conceivably be associated with in utero or early postnatal infection, whereas PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Steptococcal Infections) and the Sydenham's chorea sequelae of rheumatic fever may be associated with infection later in life.

Heat shock proteins (hsps) are ubiquitous in human cells, and are critical in the maintenance of proper protein synthesis and function.8 These proteins may serve as targets for autoimmune insult,9 with elevated levels of hsp90, a 90-kDa member of the hsp family, and antibodies to hsp90, identified in non-psychiatric illnesses, including systemic lupus erythematosus.10 Levels of hsp90 are elevated in lupus patients with neuropsychiatric disease, with changes in protein level highly sensitive for disease activity,11 and in individuals with schizophrenia.12 We became interested in hsp90 based on our serendipitous observation of a 90 kDa molecular weight protein in Western blots of the serum of autistic individuals with compulsive symptomatology that were being analyzed for a different study. We aimed to determine whether a subset of autistic individuals had elevated levels of autoantibodies to hsp90 compared to other study populations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

References

  1. Singh VKA et al. Brain Behav Immun 1993 7: 97–103

  2. Plioplys AV et al. Neuropediatrics 1989 20: 92–102

  3. Todd RD, Ciaranello RD . Neurobiology 1985 82: 612–616

  4. Plioplys AV et al. Neurology 1989 39(suppl 1): 187

  5. Singer HS et al. Biol Psychiatry 1999 46: 775–780

  6. Peterson BS et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2000 57: 364–372

  7. Kiessling LS et al. J Dev Behav Pediatr 1994 15: 421–425

  8. Ohtsuka K, Suzuki T . Brain Res Bull 2000 53: 141–146

  9. Lamb JR, Young DB . Mol Biol Med 1990 7: 311–321

  10. Latchman DS, Isenberg DA . Autoimmunity 1994 19: 211–218

  11. Dhillon VB et al. Q J Med 1994 87: 215–222

  12. Kilidireas K et al. Lancet 1992 340: 569–572

  13. Swedo SE et al. Am J Psychiatry 1997 154: 110–112

  14. DelGiudice-Asch G et al. J Autism Dev Disord 1999 29: 157–160

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and the Seaver Autism Research Center, Mt Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    M Evers & E Hollander

  2. Division of Clinical Immunology, Mt Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    C Cunningham-Rundles

Authors
  1. M Evers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C Cunningham-Rundles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. E Hollander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E Hollander.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Evers, M., Cunningham-Rundles, C. & Hollander, E. Heat shock protein 90 antibodies in autism. Mol Psychiatry 7 (Suppl 2), S26–S28 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001171

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001171

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links