LONDON, Ont. — Researchers at Western University have discovered a link between autism and gut bacteria that could lead to screening children and treating them for the disorder before symptoms show.

Western’s Dr. Derrick MacFabe and doctors Richard Frye and Stepan Melnyk of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute made the discovery, which is published online in Translational Psychiatry.

The research found abnormal energy metabolism in a large group of children with autism. The researchers say this arises not from genetic factors, but from certain types of bacteria that are prevalent in the gut of people with autism.

The research shows a link between environmental agents, such as diet or the digestive tract, as potential contributors to some types of autism spectrum disorder. It also helps shape the understanding of how some treatments could help patients with autism or prevent it in infants.

Many people with autism have digestive and metabolic issues but how those relate to the disorder was previously unclear.