Associations between Prenatal Exposure to Perchlorate, Thiocyanate, and Nitrate and Child Neurodevelopment in the MARBLES Study
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Associations between prenatal exposure to perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain largely unexplored. We investigated these associations in the MARBLES cohort, a prospective cohort with an elevated familial likelihood of ASD. A total of 310 mothers provided 1916 urine samples during pregnancy, and their children were classified at age 3 years as typically developing (TD), ASD, or non-TD (developmental concerns not meeting ASD diagnostic criteria). We estimated relative risks for ASD and non-TD compared with TD using Poisson regression and assessed mixture effects using quantile G-computation and Bayesian kernel machine regression. Overall and mixture analyses showed no significant associations between prenatal exposure to these NIS inhibitors and the child neurodevelopmental outcomes. However, stratified analyses identified several context-specific associations according to child sex, trimester of exposure, maternal urinary iodine concentration, and passive smoking status, some of which remained significant after false-discovery-rate correction. These findings suggest that susceptibility to prenatal exposure to perchlorate, thiocyanate, and nitrate may vary across population subgroups and exposure windows. Although these subgroup-specific associations should be considered hypothesis generating, they highlight the need for future studies integrating thyroid biomarkers and mechanistic approaches to better understand thyroid-related pathways underlying child neurodevelopment.
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
Funders: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, MIND Institute, University of California, Davis, Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, National Institutes of Health, University of California, Davis, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1241784340, G1334584848, G281283810, G3073890309, G3229476791, G3374453255, MIND Institute Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, G4096623411, Autism Risk, Prenatal Environmental Exposures, and Pathophysiologic Markers, G4133885571, G5083323197, G5120299696, G5415340839, G5628086484, G6168299461, The UC Davis Center for Children's Enviromental Health and Disease Prevention, G644676660, Environmental Influence on Infant Microbiome Development and ASD Symptoms, G8088330352, Prenatal Exposure to NIS inhibitors, Iodine Deficiency, and Thyroid Dysfunction, G8778665078
OpenAlex ID: W7207630415