Scientific publication
of Carla Ferreri’s research team

Today, 29/08/2017, Scientific Reports (Nature) published the scientific article “High predictive values of RBC membrane-based diagnostics by biophotonics in an integrated approach for Autism Spectrum Disorders”. For the first time, the mature red blood cell membrane is examined by two methods: BIOFOTONICA (hyperspectral microscope examination of light scattered) + LIPIDOMIC (membrane fatty acid composition examination). To put in place, the innovative method described in the scientific work, the research group of Carla Ferreri of the CNR of Research Area in Bologna who has long studied the cell membrane and its state of “balance” as a key element for human health, linked to nutrition and metabolism. They have demonstrated the utility of two combined analytical methods to examine the membrane at a molecular level in detail.

The cell membrane:
key element for human health

“The method highlights ‘spy’ deficiencies in autism at cellular level, but also opens the way to disease-fighting patterns that go through nutrition or nutritional integration,” Carla Ferreri explains and continues. “A great novelty is that red cell membranes have been used, ‘reporter’ cells of the state of the various tissues, such as the nervous one, unreachable in a living being. The red blood cell can be an imbalance signal cell, and the accuracy achieved by the two examinations allows you to evaluate and diagnose the difference between a sick cell and a healthy one. “

The analytical protocol scientifically validated

The analytical protocol was developed by researcher Carla Ferreri, a reference author of scientific work that reports on a group of children diagnosed with autism (very heterogeneous for symptoms) and on healthy children of the same age, through a small withdrawal of 20-30 drops of blood. The multidisciplinary team with bio-chemical aspects of UNIBO (Marini), Clinical-Molecular (Dr. Ghezzo) and Statistical (Bologna district) has done excellent work on autism and the characteristics of erythrocytes (PLOSONE 2013, Disease Markers 2015), in collaboration with the Head of Emilia-Romagna Regional Autism Center, Dr. Paola Visconti of Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna.

What are the perspective and subsequent steps opened with this discovery?
Researchers are already oriented to consider autism from a multidisciplinary and molecular point of view. Indeed, Carla Ferreri continues, “with the publication of these two methods, there is a real chance of monitoring a large number of children, relying on the high predictability of the results obtained but also by the strength of” nutrition in the molecular sense “, as a specific means of addressing the imbalance that characterizes this disease. We recall that children’s metabolic dysfunctions are on the increase, just think of obesity, but at the molecular level it applies very little to what science has already made clear. ”

To learn more visit also: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10361-7