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A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects

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 symp...

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Autores principales: Brondino, Natascia, Bertoglio, Federico, Forneris, Federico, Faravelli, Silvia, Borghesi, Alessandro, Damiani, Stefano, Provenzani, Umberto, Nola, Marta, Olivola, Miriam, Caviglia, Monica, Politi, Pierluigi, Fusar-Poli, Laura, Fusar-Poli, Paolo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8301977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34203463
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070860
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author Brondino, Natascia
Bertoglio, Federico
Forneris, Federico
Faravelli, Silvia
Borghesi, Alessandro
Damiani, Stefano
Provenzani, Umberto
Nola, Marta
Olivola, Miriam
Caviglia, Monica
Politi, Pierluigi
Fusar-Poli, Laura
Fusar-Poli, Paolo
author_facet Brondino, Natascia
Bertoglio, Federico
Forneris, Federico
Faravelli, Silvia
Borghesi, Alessandro
Damiani, Stefano
Provenzani, Umberto
Nola, Marta
Olivola, Miriam
Caviglia, Monica
Politi, Pierluigi
Fusar-Poli, Laura
Fusar-Poli, Paolo
author_sort Brondino, Natascia
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-83019772021-07-24 A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects Brondino, Natascia Bertoglio, Federico Forneris, Federico Faravelli, Silvia Borghesi, Alessandro Damiani, Stefano Provenzani, Umberto Nola, Marta Olivola, Miriam Caviglia, Monica Politi, Pierluigi Fusar-Poli, Laura Fusar-Poli, Paolo Brain Sci Article 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. MDPI 2021-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8301977/ /pubmed/34203463 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070860 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Brondino, Natascia
Bertoglio, Federico
Forneris, Federico
Faravelli, Silvia
Borghesi, Alessandro
Damiani, Stefano
Provenzani, Umberto
Nola, Marta
Olivola, Miriam
Caviglia, Monica
Politi, Pierluigi
Fusar-Poli, Laura
Fusar-Poli, Paolo
A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects
title A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects
title_full A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects
title_fullStr A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects
title_full_unstemmed A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects
title_short A Pilot Study on Covid and Autism: Prevalence, Clinical Presentation and Vaccine Side Effects
title_sort pilot study on covid and autism: prevalence, clinical presentation and vaccine side effects
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8301977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34203463
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070860
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