A ground-breaking urine test which could help thousands of young children worldwide awaiting an autism assessment has been developed by a team of British and US scientists.
Analutos, which is headquartered in Sunderland, has introduced a new urine test which may help with the early identification of autism and related gut health concerns.
Based in part on the findings of a recent collaborative study with partners from Arizona State University (ASU) in the US, the Microbially-Derived Metabolites (MDM)™ test is a result of 16 years of research into how gut bacteria can affect overall health and general wellbeing.
The study, published in the Nature journal Molecular Psychiatry, followed almost 100 children, half of whom were diagnosed with autism and half were typically developing children.
Multiple investigations of urine samples employing the latest analytical equipment and techniques used by Analutos, revealed a difference in urinary compounds derived from gut bacteria and yeasts between children with autism and non-autistic children.
Dr Paul Whiteley, a director at Analutos, said: “With thousands of children worldwide awaiting an autism assessment, this urine test potentially represents a major step forward in screening and onwards early intervention for young people with autism.
“We’ve been analysing samples with our partners in Arizona for over five years, running checks and looking at the data and have finally come up with a suite of compounds which we believe can help provide markers to determine if there’s a good chance somebody has autism and should be seen by professionals.
“On the whole, it has been 16 years in development, but with the UK alone having tens of thousands of people awaiting an autism assessment, we are incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve and hope it can go a long way to helping address the assessment crisis.”
Funds raised from the testing will be used to support other areas of autism research through ESPA Research, a partner organisation which both Kevin Carr and Dr Whiteley are a part of and has been involved in autism research for over 15 years.
Kevin added: “Our colleague at ESPA Research, Paul Shattock OBE who set up one of the first autistic schools in the UK and was previously president of the World Autism Organisation, has a severely autistic family member himself so we all made a commitment that proceeds made from the tests would go to ESPA Research.
“We are all members of ESPA Research, which for the past 16 years has done so much great work to alleviate some of the major challenges faced by people with autism, and hopefully the tests can go some way to ensuring this great work continues for years to come.”
Analutos was set up in 2010 by Kevin Carr as a spin-out from the University of Sunderland and since its founding has operated from a laboratory at the North East Business & Innovation Centre (BIC) in Sunderland.
The company employs three people in the UK however, now the tests have hit the market, it hopes that number will increase as demand grows and the company turns its attention to other areas of research and development.
Kevin added: “We have already received orders from around the globe and as demand grows and we continue to develop the tests, it is likely that we may have to recruit a couple of extra members of staff. It’s been an incredibly exciting few months and hopefully the best is still yet to come.”
For more information on Analutos or to purchase a test, visit: https://www.analutos.com/