IMMUNOLOGYCAL APPROACH TO THE DIAGNOSIS OF AUTISM

To date, neurotransmitter and immune abnormalities in autism are the only consistently documented findings other than neurobehavioral symptoms. Reciprocal communication between two major adaptive systems of human organism, the CNS and the immune system, is sustained via multiple pathways and is mediated by neurotransmitters, hormones, cytokines, chemokines, and corresponding cell receptors. Evidence for a dialogue between them has emerged as a universal concept of the neuroimmune regulation of homeostasis. In the paper we propose several plausible scenarios of how defects in either system may affect neuroimmune communications and lead to the pathology, as well as immunodiagnostic panels for recognition of immunopathological changes in people with autism in the Republic of Macedonia.