2017
Volume 17, Number 2, pp. 77–80
Children with epilepsy and autistic spectrum disorders show similarly high levels of urinary p-cresol
G. Tevzadze,1 L. Shanshiashvili2, 3 and D. Mikeladze2, 3
14D Research Institute, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
2Institute of Chemical Biology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
3Ivane Beritashvili Center of Experimental Biomedicine, Tbilisi, Georgia
Numerous studies have reported a trend of increasing frequency of epilepsy co-occurrence in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The high comorbidity of epilepsy and autism in children suggests that common mechanisms might underlie these two types of disorder; there is some evidence that gut microbiome neurotoxins can induce both of them. In this study we determined concentrations of the bacterial metabolite p-cresol in the urine of children with epilepsy and ASD using HPLC with fluorescence detection. Controls were healthy subjects. Urinary p-cresol was much higher in patients with ASD and with epilepsy, compared to healthy subjects. We infer that, depending on environmental/epigenetic factors, p-cresol can participate in the development of ASD or epilepsy or both.
Keywords: autism, epilepsy, HPLC, p-cresol, urine