New Test for Autism: Doctors Can Diagnose Before Symptoms Show Just by Using a Strand of Hair

A new test for autism is said to help doctors make a diagnosis before any symptoms show in the child.

A first-of-its-kind test for autism is developed by researchers, where markers of risk can be found in a single strand of hair. This is said to be an innovation that might be of great help to doctors in identifying autism in young kids before they miss their developmental milestones, NBC News reported.

Hair can register a history of exposure to metals and other various substances. Thus, the test utilizes the hair and pairs it with technology that uses algorithms to check it for patterns of specific metals associated with autism.

Groundbreaking

The new test is by the startup Linus Biotechnology (LinusBio) and is still in its early stages of development. It was also reported that it is still further from getting federal approval. Moreover, it was described as a diagnostic aid meant to assist doctors in identifying autism but "not to be relied on alone." It is, however, very promising.

A professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University, who is not involved in the research, Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, declared that what LinusBio is doing is "incredibly novel," and that utilizing just a strand of hair and their process of measurements is "innovative" and "groundbreaking."

It is the first test to analyze this kind of exposure history through elemental dynamics in the hair over time, and predicted autism accurately about 81 percent of the time, as stated in the study entitled "Elemental Dynamics in Hair Accurately Predict Future Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An International Multi-Center Study."

The researchers aim to use the technology to help young ones receive intervention treatments at the earliest and soonest possible time and to push the development of new drugs or therapy models for them.

Caution is warranted

Six independent experts from different scientific backgrounds were interviewed by NBC News about LinusBio's test. Many were genuinely excited but most expressed that "caution is warranted" and that more research is needed. All six agreed that other teams should replicate the results.

One of these six experts is Dr. Scott Myers, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician at the Geisinger Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute, who stated in an email that "much more work" needs to be done before coming up with the conclusion that the test is a valid measure of autism.

"We chose to focus on autism first for many considerations, an important one of them is the dramatically different trajectory in case of an early detection and effective intervention. The impact on the patient and the patient's family can be substantial," Manish Arora, LinusBio co-founder and CEO, quoted by FierceBiotech in a release.

After launching in 2021, LinusBio has already received $16 million as venture capital to finance its research and development efforts. It said it would use the funds to help grow its team and ensure it can deliver "tangible outcomes."