Urinary polyomavirus infections in neurodevelopmental disorders

We have recently reported enhanced frequencies of polyomavirus infection in post-mortem brain tissue of autistic patients compared to controls. To further ex- plore potential contributions to neurodevelopmental disorders by polyomaviruses, we have employed spe- cie-specific TaqMan assays to assess the prevalence and titres of BKV, JCV and SV40 in the urines of 87 patients with autism spectrum disorder, 84 controls matched by sex and age with the autistic sample, 15 subjects with Down syndrome and 13 fragile X indi- viduals. Prevalence rates of urinary BKV infection were significantly greater in Down syndrome and fra- gile X patients compared to autistic and control indi- viduals (P < 0.01). In a large majority of patients who showed the presence of urinary genomes, viral titres resulted significantly higher among Down syndrome patients (P < 0.01) compared to controls, autism spec- trum disorder and fragile X individuals, who did not significantly differ from each other. Our results are consistent with previous evidence supporting ham- pered immunological surveillance and/or immune de- ficits in fragile X and especially in Down syndrome patients.