Tailoring the Ruggiero-Klinghardt Protocol to Immunotherapy of Autism

Here, we describe the adaptation to the field of autism of an original procedure denominated the "Ruggiero-Klinghardt Protocol" (RK Protocol), a procedure that represents a paradigm change with significant implications for chronic conditions where immunotherapy may prove effective; that is from silent infections to neurodegenerative diseases, autism and cancer. In the context of autism, the modified RK Protocol that we propose here serves the purpose of discovering hidden infections that may be associated with autism and contribute to its symptoms. This notion is consistent with the observation that immune modulating molecules are effective in autism treatment. In the RK Protocol modified for autism, we introduce the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), a more objective and sophisticated method of evaluation compared with the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement scale that was previously used, independently of the RK Protocol, to evaluate the effectiveness of immunotherapy of autism. The modifications that we present in this study take advantage of the experience that has accumulated in the two years after the publication of the original RK Protocol. Similarly to the original RK Protocol, this new version offers the advantage of being safe and relatively inexpensive since it does not require sophisticated instruments; because of this, it can be implemented in different parts of the world. We envisage that implementation of the RK Protocol modified for autism may contribute to decrease the burden of the disease as it enables prevention, early diagnosis and treatment on a large scale.