Conclusion
The incidence of autism has increased dramatically over the past two decades. While its causal factors are most certainly multifactorial (toxicants, genetics, nutrient deficiencies, etc.), there are numerous cellular and biochemical pathologies that are shared by virtually all individuals with the condition. This paper has focused on what we believe to be a prime suspect as a causal environmental factor, glyphosate exposure. We have itemized several biochemical and histological pathologies associated with autism throughout this paper. We weave into this narrative a review of the literature to show substantial evidence that exposure to glyphosate has also been associated with the same pathologies found in individuals with autism. We also highlight a unique role for melatonin in protecting against development of those same neurological pathologies, and review evidence that glyphosate exposure also suppresses melatonin production.
Another prominent focus of this paper is on what we believe to be the most important pathways through which glyphosate, melatonin suppression, glutamate neuroexcitotoxicity and potentially other causal factors lead to the phenotype of autism, namely suppression of cellular isomerase PIN1 activity. Its suppression, whether by glyphosate exposure, melatonin deficiency, DAPK1 activation, glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, or other causes, is the first domino to fall, initiating a long series of downstream events that result in all the underlying pathological changes we have catalogued as associated with autism. Because of both the direct and indirect role PIN1 plays in so many cellular regulatory pathways and processes, its loss of activity has catastrophic consequences leading to autism pathology. This becomes perhaps most explicitly manifest in the developing neurological system of infants and children, making them most vulnerable to the pathological changes PIN1 suppression induces. Figure 3 provides a graphical representation of the processes we have identified in this paper leading to autism in children.