@article{522b74460c32482884912ed315dc6c7c,
title = "A pilot study on covid and autism: Prevalence, clinical presentation and vaccine side effects",
abstract = "Background: Several neurobiological mechanisms have been proposed to support the hypothesis of a higher COVID-19 risk in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, no real-world data are available on this population. Methods: We compared the period prevalence (March–May 2020) and symptom presentation of COVID-19 infections between a sample of individuals with severe ASD (n = 36) and the staff personnel (n = 35) of two specialized centers. Anti-SARS-Cov-2 antibody positivity was used as a proxy of infection. Additionally, we evaluated vaccine side effects in the same groups. Results: No significant difference was found between the prevalence of COVID-19 positivity between autistic participants and staff personnel. Levels of antibodies against the spike protein and the receptor binding domain were not significantly different between autistic and staff participants. The level of antibodies against the N-terminal domain were higher in autistic individuals. There was a significant difference between the prevalence of symptomatic COVID-19 in autistic participants (9.1%) compared to staff personnel (92.3%). The most frequent side effect among autistic participants was light fever. Conclusions: The present study provides preliminary data on COVID-19 transmission and presentation in ASD. Our data do not support the hypothesis of a higher susceptibility and severity of COVID-19 in people with ASD.",
keywords = "Antibody response, Autism spectrum disorders, COVID-19, Susceptibility, Vaccine",
author = "Natascia Brondino and Federico Bertoglio and Federico Forneris and Silvia Faravelli and Alessandro Borghesi and Stefano Damiani and Umberto Provenzani and Marta Nola and Miriam Olivola and Monica Caviglia and Pierluigi Politi and Laura Fusar-Poli and Paolo Fusar-Poli",
note = "Funding Information: The following reagents were produced under HHSN272201400008C and ob-tained through BEI Resources, NIAID, NIH: Vector pCAGGS Containing the SARS-Related Coron-avirus 2, Wuhan-Hu-1 Spike Glycoprotein Receptor Binding Domain (RBD), NR-52309. Research in the Forneris Lab is supported by Fondazione Giovanni Armenise-Harvard (CDA2013 to F.F.), the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC, ?My First AIRC Grant? id. 20075 to F.F.), the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience (grant id. 200039 to F.F.), the NATO Science for Peace and Security Program (grant id. SPS G5701 to F.F.), Velux Stiftung (grant id. 1375 to F.F.), the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) (grant id. PRIN2017RPHBCW_001 to F.F. and Diparti-menti di Eccellenza Program 2018?2022, to the Dept. of Biology and Biotechnology ?L. Spallanzani?, University of Pavia). The laboratory in which F.B. is working has received funding from the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101003650 (granted to Michael Hust). None of the funding sources had roles in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit this article for publication. Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The following reagents were produced under HHSN272201400008C and obtained through BEI Resources, NIAID, NIH: Vector pCAGGS Containing the SARS-Related Coronavirus 2, Wuhan-Hu-1 Spike Glycoprotein Receptor Binding Domain (RBD), NR-52309. Research in the Forneris Lab is supported by Fondazione Giovanni Armenise-Harvard (CDA2013 to F.F.), the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC, “My First AIRC Grant” id. 20075 to F.F.), the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience (grant id. 200039 to F.F.), the NATO Science for Peace and Security Program (grant id. SPS G5701 to F.F.), Velux Stiftung (grant id. 1375 to F.F.), the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) (grant id. PRIN2017RPHBCW_001 to F.F. and Diparti-menti di Eccellenza Program 2018–2022, to the Dept. of Biology and Biotechnology “L. Spallanzani”, University of Pavia). The laboratory in which F.B. is working has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101003650 (granted to Michael Hust). None of the funding sources had roles in the study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit this article for publication. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
doi = "10.3390/brainsci11070860",
language = "English",
volume = "11",
journal = "Brain Sciences",
issn = "2076-3425",
publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",
number = "7",
}
