Antioxidants as a Potential Therapy for Reduction of Oxidative Stress in Autistic Children

Abstract

Background:Recently, several studies showed oxidative stress in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients. Another study found oxidative stress state and mal detoxification of aluminum in autistic children. Zinc, vitamin C and vitamin E may play a significant role in the detoxification and overcoming the oxidative stress among children with autistic disorder. Objectives: A clinical trial was designed to evaluate the role of vitamin E, vitamin C and zinc oral supplementation on the oxidant-antioxidant status and the aluminum level among autistic children. Methods: Hair aluminum level (Al), malondialdehyde (MDA), Nitric Oxide (NO) and Glutathione S-Transferase (GST) activity, were estimated in 30 autistic children before and after vitamin E, vitamin C and zinc supplementation for three months. Results: After supplementation, the results revealed that hair aluminum level, MDA and NO of the children were significantly decreased. While, GST activity was significantly increased. In addition, the study showed improvement in childhood autism rating scale (CARS) score after antioxidant supplementations. As before supplementation, 7.8% of children were scored mild, 51.4% were scored moderate, and 40.8% were scored severe. While, after supplementation there were not any sever cases observed between examined children. Conclusions: Antioxidant supplementation through vitamin E, vitamin C and zinc apparently improved antioxidant status against oxidative stress among ASD children. This improvement in antioxidant status help in decreasing of aluminum level in autistic children with decreasing oxidative stress biomarkers (MDA, NO) and increasing detoxification enzyme (GST), which in turn leads to an improvement in childhood autism rating scale (CARS) score of autistic children. Thus, antioxidant supplementation may help as a protective supplementation from susceptibility to autism development in children with high aluminum level.