Actually, that is not the theory or claim. Everyone (100%) will have virus and pathogens in their body, whether ASD or not. However, a healthy immune system is able to inactivate or silence the virus by mounting an immune response and producing antibodies. However, certain viral infections such as HIV or HepB are chronic and cannot be inactivated 100% as immune response is not effective enough. The theory here is based on the marker used in the study - nagalase. This clinical marker is highly elevated in cancer and chronic infection such as HIV? So, the question is why is it elevated in ASD kids as well given they likely don’t have cancer or HIV. The answer is we don’t know why exactly. Now there is infectious theory of autism (which is plausible and there are mouse studies showing ASD symptoms in offspring if mother is infected by a virus, and getting a flu during pregnancy is a known risk factor for ASD) but don’t really know what is causing it as not really well studied at all – there are a few studies showing much higher co-infection in ASD kids versus control but that’s all. But we do know is that nagalese is elevated in many ASD kids and this is something that can be tested and must be tested before even considering this intervention. The production of GcMAF by the body is determined by the nagalese level – GcMAF is needed to activate more macrophages needed for better immune response. One can measure nagalese level before and after GcMAF therapy and that is something that should be done. Regardless of efficacy with respect to ASD symptoms, it is clear from the published study that GcMAF therapy was able to reduce nagalese level down significantly in ASD kids. I would just test nagalese level and if it is not that high, just wait for more controlled trials on this before considering it.

There is one published pilot study by Dr Bradstreet showing benefit but it is not a controlled study. He claims 85% response rate which to me means maybe a third of the kids actually respond. Here is a great blog on various ASD research discussing the paper.

http://questioning-answers.blogspot.ca/2012/12/...

This intervention should be regarded highly experimental much like stem cells. I do believe it is very promising but still needs to be more proven for us to consider it. There are over a thousand kids that have tried it, so I do believe it is relatively safe (GcMAF is naturally produced by the body) but don't know anybody who has had great success with it.

I looked into them but couldn't find any legitimate scientific research (even preliminary studies) to support their effectiveness. I am a big believer in biomed in general but not every biomed treatment has actual science to support its effectiveness. Caveat emptor!

Autism(s) is a multi causal disorder with similar symptoms. Aside from known genetic and known metabolic causes, the other known cause is actually viral encephalitis. Another known autism cause is strep which is bacterial infection and can produce an autoimmune disorder in some kids (condition called PANDAS). There is a new category of auto immune disorder categorized for research by NIH called PANS. Here is a published case study of regressive autism due to an autoimmune encephalitis after infection which fortunately was caught in time and treated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24092894

Some of the most promising autism research in the past decade has been on the immune dysfunction found in autism (hundreds of studies) including autism as an auto immune disorder (which can very well have pathogenic origins). However it doesn't have to be a new infection cause - it is possible for maternal auto antibodies be transferred in utero which according to one recent study might account for 25% of all ASD cases.

It is possible that in autism, one can have immune disorder or autoimmune antibodies which are inherited causing nagalese level to be elevated but no active infection in child, or it could be that a weakened / immune dysfunction system just means a lot of opportunistic co-infections (herpes, xmrv, flu, etc.) that have not been 100% inactivated resulting in nagalese to be elevated. Don't really know but what is clear is that nagalese is elevated and based on clinical study, we do know how to bring that back to normal. Whether bringing it back to normal results in reducing symptoms of ASD needs more research. But it is very promising.

I see that I got some details wrong on my first look but I'm still extremely skeptical that autism is caused by a virus.