First exploration
However, Dr. Beversdorf cautioned about the medication finding. “I can’t speak confidently about what we see there because with each group you get much, much smaller sample sizes with each individual treatment approach.”
The researchers looked at downstream targets of the 12 microRNAs and found involvement with 13 physiologic pathways. These included long-term depression, metabolism, and digestion pathways.
The metabolism and digestion pathways make sense, but it’s unclear why an addiction-related pathway would be involved, said Dr. Beversdorf. However, he noted children with autism do display obsessive features.
Experts don’t know if RNA changes are a cause of, or a response to, GI problems. “It could be the pain of constipation is triggering, say, these addiction pathway changes,” said Dr. Beversdorf.
The study is the “first exploration” into possible specific targets for treating GI disturbances in autism, said Dr. Beversdorf. “We hope these biomarkers will eventually give us an indication of which patients are going to respond to the individual approach to treating their constipation, their diarrhea, or whatever it is.”
The investigators plan to study whether RNA biomarkers determine which patients respond to different treatments targeting constipation, said Dr. Beversdorf.
A study limitation was that GI disturbances were not assessed by physicians. In addition, the term “GI disturbance” groups together loosely related pathology occurring in the GI tract, although there are important physiologic differences between conditions such as constipation and reflux.
The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.