|
Post by healthy11 on Jan 29, 2016 17:49:59 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Feb 18, 2016 10:19:02 GMT -5
Here's an article that says neuroscientists have been able to reverse autism symptoms in certain situations: medicalxpress.com/news/2016-02-neuroscientists-reverse-autism-symptoms.html"Autism has diverse genetic causes, most of which are still unknown. About 1 percent of people with autism are missing a gene called Shank3, which is critical for brain development. Without this gene, individuals develop typical autism symptoms including repetitive behavior and avoidance of social interactions. In a study of mice, MIT researchers have now shown that they can reverse some of those behavioral symptoms by turning the gene back on later in life, allowing the brain to properly rewire itself..."
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Mar 7, 2016 10:15:41 GMT -5
medicalxpress.com/news/2016-03-brain-gardeners-immune-cells-prune.html The article begins, "A new study out today in the journal Nature Communications shows that cells normally associated with protecting the brain from infection and injury also play an important role in rewiring the connections between nerve cells. While this discovery sheds new light on the mechanics of neuroplasticity, it could also help explain diseases like autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia, which may arise when this process breaks down and connections between brain cells are not formed or removed correctly..."
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Mar 11, 2016 21:30:17 GMT -5
neurosciencenews.com/autism-treatment-target-3841/ says "... The Lieber Institute’s study is the first to identify specific proteins that represent potential therapeutic targets for Pitt-Hopkins and possibly other neuropsychiatric disorders, including other forms of autism and schizophrenia. Lieber Institute scientists show that by modifying these proteins, abnormalities related to the Pitt-Hopkins gene are reversed. The study, published in the journal Neuron, is titled “Psychiatric Risk Gene Transcription 4 Regulates the Intrinsic Excitability of Prefrontal Neurons via Repression of SCN10a and KCNQ1.”
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Mar 16, 2016 8:53:08 GMT -5
medicalxpress.com/news/2016-03-mouse-yields-treatment-autism-like-symptoms.html About half of children born with Jacobsen syndrome, a rare inherited disease, experience social and behavioral issues consistent with autism spectrum disorders. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and collaborators developed a mouse model of the disease that also exhibits autism-like social behaviors and used it to unravel the molecular mechanism that connects the genetic defects inherited in Jacobsen syndrome to effects on brain function....Jacobsen syndrome is a rare genetic disorder in which a child is born missing a portion of one copy of chromosome 11. This gene loss leads to multiple clinical challenges, such as congenital heart disease, intellectual disability, developmental and behavioral problems, slow growth and failure to thrive. Previous research by Grossfeld and colleagues suggested that PX-RICS might be the missing chromosome 11 gene...mice lacking the PX-RICS gene were also deficient in GABAAR, a protein crucial for normal neuron function. That observation inspired the researchers to test clonazepam, a commonly used anti-anxiety drug that works by boosting GABAAR, as a potential treatment for autism-like symptoms in these Jacobsen syndrome mice. PX-RICS-deficient mice treated with low, non-sedating doses of clonazepam behaved almost normally in social tests, experienced improvements in learning performance and were better able to deviate from established habits. "We now hope in the future to carry out a small pilot clinical trial on people with Jacobsen syndrome and autism to determine if clonazepam might help improve their autistic features," Grossfeld said.
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Mar 23, 2016 20:08:10 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Mar 31, 2016 21:26:12 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Apr 20, 2016 14:33:34 GMT -5
"A functional biomarker has been found, that identifies autism in boys, according to researchers at George Washington University: Researchers have developed a new method to map and track the function of brain circuits affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in boys using brain imaging. The technique will provide clinicians and therapists with a physical measure of the progress patients are making with behavioral and/or drug treatments - a tool that has been elusive in autism treatment until this point. For the first time, doctors would be able to quantify how that brain circuit is working in their patients and assess the effectiveness of an intervention. The research is outlined in a paper, "Quantified Social Perception Circuit Activity as a Neurobiological Marker of Autism Spectrum Disorder," published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. The paper focuses on the use of biomarkers, measurable indicators of a biological condition, to measure the function of the social perception circuit of the brain. "This is significant because biomarkers give us a 'why' for understanding autism in boys that we haven't had before," said Kevin Pelphrey, a co-author of the paper, who is the Carbonell Family Professor in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and director of the Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute at the George Washington University..." Read more at medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-functional-biomarker-autism-boys.html
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Jun 9, 2016 18:02:52 GMT -5
medicalxpress.com/news/2016-06-mouse-autism-disease-brain.html states, "...a study in mice, published June 9 in Cell, now suggests that at least some aspects of the disorder—including how touch is perceived, anxiety, and social abnormalities—are linked to defects in another area of the nervous system, the peripheral nerves found throughout the limbs, digits, and other parts of the body that communicate sensory information to the brain." The above article goes into additional details about genes, sensory neurons, and more that may be involved in ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders.)
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Jul 1, 2016 12:03:22 GMT -5
medicalxpress.com/news/2016-07-prenatal-exposure-paracetamol-autism-spectrum.html
"A new study has found that paracetamol (acetaminophen), which is used extensively during pregnancy, has a strong association with autism spectrum symptoms in boys and for both genders in relation to attention-related and hyperactivity symptoms. The findings were published this week in the International Journal of Epidemiology."
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Aug 23, 2016 9:03:41 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Aug 31, 2016 13:59:02 GMT -5
medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-zinc-reverse-brain-cell-autism.html says that research has shown zinc has been found to reduce brain cell changes in autism. Excerpts from the article follow: ...International studies have found that normally there are high levels of zinc in the brain, and brain cells are regulated by zinc, but that zinc deficiency is prevalent in autistic children.
"Research using animal models has shown that when a mother is given a low zinc diet, the offspring will be more likely to display autistic associated behaviours"
"Our work is showing that even the cells that carry genetic changes associated with autism can respond to zinc.
"Our research has focussed on the protein Shank3, which is localized at synapses in the brain and is associated with neuro-developmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia," she says.
"Human patients with genetic changes in Shank3 show profound communication and behavioural deficits. In this study, we show that Shank3 is a key component of a zinc-sensitive signalling system that regulates how brain cells communicate."
"Intriguingly, autism-associated changes in the Shank3 gene impair brain cell communication," says Dr Montgomery. "These genetic changes in Shank3 do not alter its ability to respond to zinc".
"As a result, we have shown that zinc can increase brain cell communication that was previously weakened by autism-associated changes in Shank3".
"Disruption of how zinc is regulated in the body may not only impair how synapses work in the brain, but may lead to cognitive and behavioural abnormalities seen in patients with psychiatric disorders."
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Nov 29, 2016 22:03:51 GMT -5
www.ecowatch.com/mercury-linked-autism-kennedy-2116850430.htmlPortions of the article include the following: In an article published in the journal Metabolic Brain Disease, a team of nine scientists from leading Egyptian universities and medical schools confirmed the causal role of mercury in the onset of autism. Also referenced were American studies that have linked autism presence or severity to mercury exposure as determined by measuring urinary porphyrins.
Many of the mothers of children in the first 2016 Egyptian study (Khaled et al.) had multiple dental amalgams which may have contributed to the children's body levels of mercury. The study does not examine the potential link between autism and the vaccine preservative, thimerosal, which is 50 percent ethyl mercury by weight. However, other studies indicate that the ethyl mercury in thimerosal is 50 times as toxic to human tissue as the methylmercury in amalgams and fish (Guzzi et al. 2012, Interdiscipl Toxicol 5:159) and at least twice as persistent in the brain (Burbacher et al. 2005, Environ Health Perspect 113:1015).
A November 2014 study published in Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology (38:1016) by Heba Yassa of the Assuit University Medical School's Department of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, looked at 45 children with autism and 45 controls. Using blood and hair samples, Dr. Yassa also found high levels of lead and mercury among the children with autism and not the controls. Using dimercaptosuccinic acid or DMSA as a chelating agent, Dr. Yassa was able to reduce blood mercury and lead levels in the autistic children. His study documents significant declines in autism symptoms with the decrease of metals in the children's blood. The study's concluded: "Lead and mercury are considered as one of the main causes of autism. Environmental exposure as well as genetic inability of certain individuals to excrete metals is responsible for the high levels of heavy metals. Detoxification by chelating agents had a great role in improving those kids."
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Apr 26, 2017 18:44:11 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by melvinhoward on May 17, 2017 1:43:38 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing all these interesting and informative articles.
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Jul 26, 2017 22:38:27 GMT -5
Here's a link to a very informative article that mentions PZM's (post-zygotic mutations, aka somatic mutations, which occur after fertilization.) A team led by investigators at Boston Children's Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard reports the findings in Nature Neuroscience..."We have known that PZMs are an important cause of epilepsy, but this work provides the best evidence so far that they are relevant to autism as well..." www.news-medical.net/news/20170717/Mutations-arising-after-conception-may-play-vital-role-in-autism.aspx
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Sept 19, 2017 8:51:30 GMT -5
www.newsweek.com/autism-sisters-project-research-genetics-623890 ....Studies appear to show that being female provides some protection from developing autism....The biological differences of males and females appear to have a strong influence. For example, studies have found that cells involved in the brain’s process of synaptic pruning, known as microglia, are thought to be involved in the development of autism. Some recent research from University of California, San Francisco, looked at the impact of sex differences on brain development. The study finds that microglia differ in number and behavior in boys versus girls, and the genes that cause microglia to develop are more active in males, especially in the months before birth. Joseph Buxbaum, who is helping lead the Autism Sister Project, says it will be one of the first that not only pinpoints risks for autism but also identifies protective factors. This approach to research, says Siper, “represents an important shift in our thinking about how to develop the most promising treatments.”
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Apr 22, 2018 12:47:55 GMT -5
www.popsugar.com/moms/Can-Fevers-During-Pregnancy-Cause-Autism-43637953 says "A new report published this week in Molecular Psychiatry determined that a pregnant woman who had fevers, particularly during her second trimester, was 40 percent more likely to have a child with autism. "Maternal exposure to second-trimester fever was associated with increased autism spectrum disorder risk," the team wrote. Moreso, the study — which surveyed 95,000 children born in Norway after documenting all of the mothers' illnesses during pregnancy — theorized that it's less to do with the bacteria or virus potentially damaging a baby's brain as it is to do with the body's immune response. According to the study's research team, inflammatory chemicals such as cytokines could be crossing the placenta and affecting the developing fetus. Women who took acetaminophen to lower their fevers were less likely to get an autism diagnosis, for instance.
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Feb 8, 2019 21:47:46 GMT -5
Research by Emory University School of Medicine on Hyperexcitability in Fragile X syndrome and autism is discussed in the following:
medicalxpress.com/news/2019-02-probing-hyperexcitability-fragile-syndrome.html
|
|
|
Post by healthy11 on Jul 17, 2019 18:09:51 GMT -5
A massive, newly released study shows that about 80% of a child's risk of developing autism comes from their genes: /www.huffpost.com/entry/autism-genetics-risk_l_5d2f51aee4b0a873f645a519 "...similar recent studies that have suggested genes are the major contributing factor to ASD. What’s notable about this new investigation, however, is its sheer size. “What’s immense about this study is the number of children across the world that were [included] — two million in the study population — and the large span of time, of a 16-year follow-up,” Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a pediatrician with Seattle Children’s who did not work on the study, told HuffPost. “It’s hard to argue with the kind of tonnage of that number.” Also read www.livescience.com/autism-cluster-sperm-donor-genetics.html
|
|