Ladygran,
I will hazard a guess you refer to V K Singh's paper titled "Phenotypic expression of an autoimmune autistic disorder (AAD): A major subset of autism".
Now I have come across Singh before because this paper is one of the ones that is included in a list of 28 papers which supposedly support Wakefield's. This list of 28 "studies" pops up all over the place, I remember a happy afternoon spent fisking it some time ago. The reason I remember this paper in particular is that it was just about the only entry on the list that might be genuinely construed as supporting Wakefield's claims.
I have also come across is as its a favourite of antivaxers, and have therefore looked at the paper as a whole. The below are some of my comments, though I am a scientist by trade this isn't my area of expertise, and all errors are mine.
The major problem with the study is that the findings have not been replicated. Singh is claiming to have identified "a major subset of autism" which he calls "autoimmune autistic disorder" or AAD. In his conclusion he speculates that if 75% of the American autistic population have AAD or autoimmunity then up to 1.9 million individuals could "benefit directly from autoimmunity research".
You'd think, perhaps, that AAD would be a topic of much research. However, if you go to Google scholar and search for "autoimmune autistic disorder" it pulls up just 42 results. The vast majority of these appear to be papers referencing Singh's papers, or papers by Singh himself. Actually just using Google (rather than the scholar version) you just get references to Singh's paper, including one from Age of Autism for the first three pages, after which I got bored.
Back to the paper itself, and the conclusion which begins boldly:
"Current scientific research from laboratories worldwide has demonstrated that autoimmunity is the core of the problem in a vast majority of of people affected with autism/ASD."
He then refers to his references 2, 3, 4 & 41. If you check out these references they have one thing in common, they're all authored by one V K Singh. Actually almost a exactly a third of his references share this feature.
Now, as I say this isn't my area of expertise but this number of references to your own papers strikes me as rather exceptional.
Back to the paper though:
Let's go to page three under "Immune findings in autism". It reads "Immune studies in laboratories around the world have have shown the existence of autoimmune problem (TABLE1) in children with autism/ASD" and then a list of references. Of these references twenty of the twenty nine are works by a V K Singh. If you look at table one the same pattern is apparent. If these autoimmune problems are genuinely being found in autistic children in "studies in laboratories around the world" you'd really think he wouldn't have to rely so heavily on his previously published work to demonstrate this.
On to some of the results he presents.
We have the "MMR antibodies" found in autistic children (page 5). To quote the paper "...we invoked the hypothesis that an atypical measles infection may be etiologically linked to brain autoimmunity in autism. There is considerable credence to this hypotheses is based on studies of autoimmunity-inducing cytokines that have been reported in the literature. First, autistic children have significant increases in autoimmunity-inducing cytokines such as interleukin-12 (IL-12) and interferon-y (IFN-y) in favour of a Th1 immune response." Then gives two references to papers authored by, you guessed it, V K Singh. If the literature genuinely has enough evidence reported to give his hypothesis credence you'd think he'd refer to some papers other than his own, to give his hypothesis a bit more, er, credence. Then at the end of the page he writes "it is quite conceivable that MMR vaccine might also be involved in the pathogenesis of autism". Then refers to another two papers, authored again by a V K Singh.
Moving on to those unsolicited letter from parents of autistic children. I am rather surprised they were even included in a published paper. These are letters written to the authors after publication of a paper on "Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS autoimmunity in children with autism". This group of parents can hardly be said to be drawn at random from the population.
Moving swiftly on, however, to the conclusion (as this post I'd already hideously long). They begin "Currently scientific research from laboratories worldwide has demonstrated autoimmunity is the core of the problem in a vast majority of people affected with autism/ASD." That bold claim again, and again the only reference given to back it up are authored by Singh VK. "We have identified and characterized the autoimmune subset as a major subset of autism and designated it as an AAD".
To which I think one might respond, well you have, but I don't see anyone else doing so.
This is the major problem with this paper, the fact that it makes extremely bold claims which it itself fails to back up with independent studies (no matter what claims are made about studies from laboratories around the world have found, if that were true it'd be great if some of those studies were referenced). No one else seems to be using the terminology AAD to describe a major subset of autism, and the only people keen on citing this study are the anti-vaccination bunch.
So, that's a brief summary of some of the things I find less than inspiring about the paper. Like I say this is not my area of expertise, and all errors of judgement and fact in the above are mine.
By the way, I am not doubting there is an autoimmune link in some cases of ASD. The above refers to Singh's paper, not to any other- so please don't link to other papers by different authors which are looking at autoimmunity as if this negates what I have said above, because it doesn't. I am talking about Singh and his "AAD".
Cheers.