Evaluation of serum Neuron-specific enolase, S100B, myelin basic protein and glial fibrilliary acidic protein as brain specific proteins in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Objective: Brain specific-proteins are not found in other tissues and measurement non-invasively in the blood may identify structurally and functionally damaged brain regions and identify the severity and prognosis of neuropsychiatric diseases. For this reason, we aimed to evaluate serum brain-specific protein values as brain damage markers in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Method: 35 children with ASD and 31 healthy subjects were included in the study. Sociodemographic form and Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) were applied to each subject. Serum neuron specific enolase (NSE), S100B, Myelin basic protein (MBP) and Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) values ​​were measured with ELISA.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups for NSE, MBP and S100B values (p=0.242; p=0.768; p=0.672, respectively). However, GFAP values ​​in the patient group were statistically significantly higher (mean±SD: 0.463±0.392ng/ml) than in the healthy control group (mean±SD: 0.256±0.111ng/ml) (p<0.001). In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between serum GFAP values ​​and CARS score in all subjects and in the patient group (r=0.599; p<0.001 and r=0.380; p=0.024, respectively).

Conclusions: While serum NSE, MBP, and S100B values cannot be considered as biomarkers for ASD, GFAP may be a biomarker and is suggested as a possible indicator of autism severity.