Scientists will need to confirm the results of the study released this month, which looked at just 27 people with autism. There is much hope for the future in autism research, and this study offers a possible new approach

An estimated one in 150 people is diagnosed with autism, a condition that makes it difficult for people to communicate and understand the emotions of others.

The causes of autism remain unclear in about 90 percent of children who have symptoms. There are no tests we can do to identify underlying biological signs consistently," he said. "In other words, we need clues to the biological processes that will shed light on the mechanisms that lead to autism, and provide clinical markers of the process.

Reliable tests will be able to identify children at risk or affected early in the process so that intervention with various forms of therapy can be started early or used for prevention.

In the 2008 study, published in the Journal of Proteome Research, researchers said they have a saliva test that holds promise.

The researchers said the test showed that the saliva of 18 of 27 autistic patients revealed abnormal proteins. It's possible that the proteins could be a sign of problems in brain development during infancy, said the study's lead author, Massimo Castagnola, a researcher with Università Cattolica in Rome.

There are some caveats, however, according to Castagnola. To begin with, autistic patients typically aren't cooperative, and it's not clear what treatment would follow a positive diagnosis. Future research is needed to determine the connection between test results and signs of autism. Autism comes in many forms, and a test of proteins in saliva might not correlate specifically in certain types of patients with autism and might not be consistent over time.

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