Shahid Bashir and Laila AL-Ayadhi
The etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is not well known but recently we reported that the serum levels of sonic hedgehog (SHH) protein and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) might be linked to oxidative stress in ASD. We hypothesized that Indian hedgehog (IHH) protein which belongs to SHH family may play a pathological role in the ASD. We studied recently diagnosed patients in early stages of ASD (n=54) and age-matched, cognitively normal, individuals (n=25), using serum levels of IHH protein. We found statistically significantly higher-levels of serum IHH protein in ASD subjects (p=0.001) compared to control subjects. Our findings are the first to report a role of IHH in ASD children, suggesting a possible pathological role-played by IHH in early-stage in ASD. Such measures might constitute an early biomarker for ASD and ultimately offer a target for novel biomarker-based therapeutic interventions.
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