NFKB1 and autism: Naik et al. (2011) for example, evaluated for NF-κB in peripheral blood samples of 67 children with autism and 29 control children and found a significant increase in NF-κB DNA binding activity in the peripheral blood samples of children with autism. They further stated that autism may arise, at least in part, from an NF-κB pathway gone awry. Other studies corroborate their findings (Ziats and Rennert, 2011).