Therapeutic and diagnostic methods for autism spectrum disorders and other conditions

A method of screening a female patient for a high risk of having children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) comprising the steps of:

• (a) obtaining a sample from the female patient, wherein the serum is suspected of comprising an antibody to angiotensin II type 1 receptor;
• (b) contacting the serum sample obtained from the female patient with an AT-1 polypeptide;
• (c) incubating the serum sample with the AT-1 polypeptide under conditions sufficient to allow the formation of AT-1 antibody:AT-1 polypeptide complexes;
• (d) detecting the presence or absence of the AT-1 antibody:AT-1 polypeptide complexes;
• (e) identifying the female patients as having a high risk of having children with ASD if AT-1 antibody:AT-1 polypeptide complexes are detected and identifying the female patient as not having a high risk of having children with ASD if AT-1 antibody:AT-1 polypeptide complexes are not detected;
• and
• (f) treating the female patients identified as having a high risk of having children with ASD with an effective amount of Telmisartan, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and/or plasmaphoresis or immunophoresis to remove the AT-1 antibodies.