Researchers have discovered that the vaccine against MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) doesn’t work for autism too. So the vaccine doesn’t raise the risk for the bipolar disease of autism. Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Mailman School of Public Health Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons said during a teleconference on Wednesday that they were certain that there is no link between autism and the MMR.

Lipkin added that they” found no evidence that the [gastrointestinal] pathology consistently preceded autism, and we also found that the MMR didn't consistently precede either autism or GI pathology."

Still, the vaccine could interfere in causing gastrointestinal problems that can precede the symptoms of autism. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963 when nearly 4 million Americans got the virus and about 500 of them died annually.

A study released by a British team in 1998 showed that the presence of measles RNA in the gastrointestinal tract had a relation with autism and gastrointestinal problems.

Researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Massachusetts General Hospital and Trinity College Dublin in Ireland made bowel biopsies on the children with autism and gastrointestinal problems and compared them with the ones of the children who had no development delays.

The researchers studied the bowel tissues to search for the presence of the measles virus RNA. The measles RNA could grow in the intestinal tract and could cause inflammation that would make the bowel permeable so the virus can enter the circulation system and reach the nervous system, where autism can be developed.

The Public Library of Science journal will present the new findings online on Thursday.