Metabolic Perturbance in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Metabolomics Study

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of biological
disorders
with associated metabolic derangement. This study aimed to identify
a pattern of metabolic perturbance in ASD using metabolomics in urinary
specimens from 48 children with ASD and 53 age matched controls. Using
a combination of liquid- and gas-chromatography-based mass spectrometry,
we detected the levels of 82 metabolites (53 of which were increased)
that were significantly altered between the ASD and the control groups
using osmolality normalized data. Pattern analysis showed that the
levels of several amino acids such as glycine, serine, threonine,
alanine, histidine, glutamyl amino acids and the organic acid, taurine
were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower in ASD
children. The levels of antioxidants such as carnosine were also reduced
in ASD (p = 0.054). Furthermore, several gut bacterial
metabolites were significantly altered in ASD children who had gastrointestinal
dysfunction. Overall, this study detected abnormal amino acid metabolism,
increased oxidative stress, and altered gut microbiomes in ASD. The
relationship of altered gut microbial co-metabolism and the disrupted
metabolisms requires further investigation.