Title

Serum fetuin A and cystatin B as biomarkers among autism spectrum disorder patients in central India

Authors

Sameeksha Luthra¹, Niranjan Gopal¹, Urmila Dahake², Dnyanesh Amle¹, Jyoti E. John¹, Roshan Takhelmayum¹, Utsav Haldar^1,*, Jancy Jose¹ & Chandrasekaran Kirubhanand³

Affiliation

¹Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; ²Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; ³Department of Anatomy, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Urmila Dahake - E-mail: drurmilachauhan@aiimsnagpur.edu.in
Dnyanesh Amle - E-mail: dnyanesh@aiimsnagpur.edu.in
Jyoti E. John - E-mail: jyotijohn@aiimsnagpur.edu.in
Roshan Takhelmayum - E-mail: roshan@aiimsnagpur.edu.in
Utsav Haldar - E-mail: utsavh07@gmail.com
Jancy Jose - E-mail: jancyjose@aiimsnagpur.edu.in
Chandrasekhar Kirubhanand - E-mail: kirubhanand@aiimsnagpur.edu.in

Sameeksha Luthra - E-mail: sameekshaluthra26@gmail.com
Niranjan Gopal - E-mail: niranjang@aiimsnagpur.edu.in

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received February 1, 2026; Revised February 28, 2026; Accepted February 28, 2026, Published February 28, 2026

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) remains underdiagnosed in low- and middle-income countries due to reliance on subjective behavioural assessments and lack of validated objective biomarkers for early detection. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate the potential of two serum biomarkers, Fetuin-A and Cystatin B, as objective diagnostic indicators for ASD in 60 children from Central India (30 with ASD, 30 controls). While Fetuin-A showed a non-significant trend of elevation in the ASD group, Cystatin B levels were found to be significantly elevated in the ASD subjects compared to the neurotypical controls. ROC analysis demonstrated moderate diagnostic potential for both, with Cystatin B showing a higher Area under the Curve (AUC) of 69.5%. Thus, Cystatin B is a promising serum biomarker that could supplement current diagnostic tools for the early and accurate identification of ASD.

Keywords

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); Cystatin B; Fetuin-A; Biomarkers; Neuroinflammation; India; Paediatric Neurodevelopment; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA); ROC Analysis

Citation

Luthra et al. Bioinformation 22(2): 733-738 (2026)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.