Nitric oxide nanosensor offers autism diagnostic hope

A study published in NeuroMarkers showed that a nanosensor can measure nitric oxide (NO) from patient-derived stem cells to distinguish autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from intellectual disability (ID), even when both conditions share the exact same genetic mutation.

The researchers, from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ohio University, used a carbon-fiber nanosensor, originally developed to study cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease to measure real-time NO production in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The method bypasses the blood-brain barrier, which often makes blood-based biomarkers unreliable for brain conditions.

“ASD patient cells produced about 6 nM of NO, ID patient cells produced 11 nM, and healthy control cells produced 65 nM, a clear, quantifiable difference,” shares co-author Howard D. Dewald. “This is significant because ASD and ID often have overlapping symptoms and shared genetic causes, making early differential diagnosis difficult.”

"Despite overlapping etiologies and symptomatic similarities between autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, real-time bio-electrochemical analysis of newly generated nitric oxide can still serve as a biomarker for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of autism," adds co-author Abdullah Asif Khan.

The duo chose iPSCs because they reflect the earliest developmental stage, eliminating confounding factors like age, nutrition, or drug treatments. “Surprisingly, the method did not require differentiating cells into neurons—measurements were made on undifferentiated iPSCs, simplifying the workflow,” notes Dewald.

Currently, ASD diagnosis relies on behavioral evaluations, which often delay identification. “This nanosensor-based approach could enable diagnosis in the first few months after birth using somatic cells,” says Khan.

While the study is limited by sample availability, it opens a new path for precision diagnostics in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Contact author details:

Howard D. Dewald, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA, dewald@ohio.edu 

Funder:

This work was supported in part by Elucida Research, Beverly, MA, USA and through cell acquisition procurement through the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) to the corresponding author.

Conflict of interest:

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this communication.

See the article:

Khan AA, Dewald HD. Nanosensor-based method for autism diagnosis using nitric oxide from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells as a biomarker. NeuroMarkers. 2026;3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neumar.2026.100166 .