Vaccine developed to fight gut bacteria and autism symptoms

Published April 26, 2013

FoxNews.com

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A vaccine has been created for children with autism to help fight gut bacteria, which may also help to control some of their symptoms of autism, Science Daily reported.

The University of Guelph researchers who conducted the study published their findings in this month’s journal Vaccine.

Brittany Pequegnat, a master’s student, and Guelph chemistry professor Mario Monteiro created a carb-based vaccine, which protects against Clostridium bolteae – also known as C. bolteae.

This particular bug is known to play a role in gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, and it often shows up more in kids with autism compared to the rest of the population.

More than 90 percent of children on the autism spectrum suffer from chronic GI issues, and of those 90 percent, 75 percent suffer from diarrhea.

Monteiro said experts aren’t quite sure what causes children with autism to become predisposed to C. bolteae, but sometimes antibiotics can help. However, a vaccine could not only control unpleasant GI symptoms but perhaps the symptoms associated with autism as well.

Many experts believe environmental factors play a role in autism, but other researchers believe the focus should be on bacteria in the gut.

Pequegnat and Monteiro used bacteria grown by a Guelph Ph.D. student to develop their vaccine, which targets the carbohydrates on the bug’s surface. The vaccine raised C. bolteae-specific antibodies in the rabbits used for the study.

Researchers said the vaccine would take more than 10 years to study in clinical and human trials, but this development is a significant step forward.

Research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

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Smartphone bacteria 'art project': THIS lives on your phone

This smartphone bacteria may be art, but that doesn't mean it isn't real.

The truth is we're all filthy, filthy creatures and your smartphone harbors proof.

In the most ugly example of art mirroring life, students from the microbiology department of the University of Surrey in the UK have turned life into art, by cultivating the bacteria from smartphones in petri-dishes, letting it sit and grow for three days.

'The mobile phone doesn’t just remember telephone numbers but also a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil, etc.'

- Simon Park from The University of Surrey

Gallery: Smartphone bacteria cannot be unseen

They then photographed the results and blew it up large for all to see.

"From these results, it seems that the mobile phone doesn’t just remember telephone numbers, but also harbors a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil, etc," said Simon Park whose class at The University of Surrey created the bacterial art.

While most of the bacteria was fairly harmless, they found some pretty scary stuff too including Staphylococcus aureus, boils, sinusitis and food poisoning.

Worse, touchscreen smartphones were found to harbor bacterial all over them, while the yucky stuff on non-smartphones was limited to the keyboard.

This is why anti-bacterial smartphone wipes are such a good idea. Also because British researchers found that mobile phones contained 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle in a men's restroom.

So how can you keep your phone clean? Here are a few tips:

- Smartphone wipes, we've been over this
- Anti-bacterial wipes for your hands and face
- Don't take your phone into the bathroom with you. Enough said.
- Also, wash your hands after going to the bathroom.

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