Board index › General Discussion › News and Current Events

Drugs Hint At Potential Reversal Of Autism

Page 1 of 1 [ 10 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

richie
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 65
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania

23 Sep 2008, 7:38 am

Drugs Hint At Potential Reversal Of Autism


Morning Edition, September 23, 2008 · Scientific researchers can spend years in the lab on obscure topics, like how a sea slug remembers or how a fruit fly sees color. But every now and then, a basic scientist makes a discovery that changes human lives.

Mark Bear, who directs the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, is one of those basic scientists. He's discovered a system in the brain that could change the lives of thousands of people with the genetic disorder known as Fragile X Syndrome.....


_________________
Life! Liberty!...and Perseveration!!.....
Weiner's Law of Libraries: There are no answers, only cross references.....
My Blog: http://richiesroom.wordpress.com/


Mage
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,054

23 Sep 2008, 9:07 am

Too bad the article is about Fragile X and not autism...



Ishmael
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Jul 2008
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 953
Location: Australia

23 Sep 2008, 11:38 am

Oh, damn. I really wish these fringe scientists would cut this sort of nonsense out...
"fragile x causes mental retardation and autism". Yeah... Right.
How about "fragile x causes mental retardation and may indicate a minor factor in the development of autism, research pending."

Junior league dickheads...


_________________
Oh, well, fancy that! Isn't that neat, eh?


Orwell
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Aug 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,518
Location: Room 101

23 Sep 2008, 12:30 pm

Dammit NPR, you can't even do five minutes of Wikipedia research before publishing this crap? Fragile X is NOT autism. :x


_________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH


monty
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Sep 2007
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,741

23 Sep 2008, 2:14 pm

They aren't the same, but people with fragile X are far, far more likely to have autism than the average person. People with fragile X also commonly have neural network hyperexcitability. So even though most with ASDs don't have fragile X, this research may be of high value to the ASD community.



monty
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Sep 2007
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,741

23 Sep 2008, 2:18 pm

One other note: some of the basic research for this came out of feeding Monosodium Glutamate to various genotypes of fruit flies to model the type of nervous dysfunction seen in fragile X and ASDs.

Quote:
Nat Chem Biol. 2008 Apr;4(4):256-63.
Identification of small molecules rescuing fragile X syndrome phenotypes in Drosophila.
Chang S, Bray SM, Li Z, Zarnescu DC, He C, Jin P, Warren ST.

Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, 615 Michael Street Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by the functional loss of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. Deletion of the FMR1 ortholog in Drosophila melanogaster (Fmr1) recapitulates many phenotypes associated with fragile X syndrome. We have discovered that Fmr1 mutant Drosophila die during development when reared on food containing increased levels of glutamate, which is consistent with the theory that FMR1 loss results in excess glutamate signaling. Using this lethal phenotype, we screened a chemical library of 2,000 compounds and identified nine molecules that rescued the lethality, including three that implicate the GABAergic inhibitory pathway. Indeed, GABA treatment rescued several known Fmr1 mutant phenotypes in flies, including mushroom bodies defects, excess Futsch translation and abnormal male courtship behavior. These data are consistent with GABAergic inhibition of the enhanced excitatory pathway in fragile X syndrome. In addition, our screen reveals that the muscarinic cholinergic receptors may have a role in fragile X syndrome in parallel to the GABAergic pathway. These results point to potential therapeutic approaches for treating fragile X syndrome.



violet_yoshi
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Aug 2004
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,297

23 Sep 2008, 2:22 pm

monty wrote:
One other note: some of the basic research for this came out of feeding Monosodium Glutamate to various genotypes of fruit flies to model the type of nervous dysfunction seen in fragile X and ASDs.

Quote:
Nat Chem Biol. 2008 Apr;4(4):256-63.
Identification of small molecules rescuing fragile X syndrome phenotypes in Drosophila.
Chang S, Bray SM, Li Z, Zarnescu DC, He C, Jin P, Warren ST.

Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, 615 Michael Street Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by the functional loss of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. Deletion of the FMR1 ortholog in Drosophila melanogaster (Fmr1) recapitulates many phenotypes associated with fragile X syndrome. We have discovered that Fmr1 mutant Drosophila die during development when reared on food containing increased levels of glutamate, which is consistent with the theory that FMR1 loss results in excess glutamate signaling. Using this lethal phenotype, we screened a chemical library of 2,000 compounds and identified nine molecules that rescued the lethality, including three that implicate the GABAergic inhibitory pathway. Indeed, GABA treatment rescued several known Fmr1 mutant phenotypes in flies, including mushroom bodies defects, excess Futsch translation and abnormal male courtship behavior. These data are consistent with GABAergic inhibition of the enhanced excitatory pathway in fragile X syndrome. In addition, our screen reveals that the muscarinic cholinergic receptors may have a role in fragile X syndrome in parallel to the GABAergic pathway. These results point to potential therapeutic approaches for treating fragile X syndrome.


So that could explain why I feel better after eating Chinese food, lol.



Ravenclawgurl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,274
Location: somewhere over the rainbow

23 Sep 2008, 3:23 pm

i dont have fragile x so it dont apply to me ( and i know for a fact i dont have fragile x syndrome because i was actually tested for that in the past and it came back negative.)



Mage
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,054

23 Sep 2008, 7:24 pm

monty wrote:
They aren't the same, but people with fragile X are far, far more likely to have autism than the average person. People with fragile X also commonly have neural network hyperexcitability. So even though most with ASDs don't have fragile X, this research may be of high value to the ASD community.


So what happens to the few that actually do happen to have fragile X AND autism? They cure the fragile X, and the autism is still there?



monty
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Sep 2007
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,741

24 Sep 2008, 1:52 pm

Mage wrote:
monty wrote:
They aren't the same, but people with fragile X are far, far more likely to have autism than the average person. People with fragile X also commonly have neural network hyperexcitability. So even though most with ASDs don't have fragile X, this research may be of high value to the ASD community.


So what happens to the few that actually do happen to have fragile X AND autism? They cure the fragile X, and the autism is still there?


It won't cure fragile X, but it seems to treat it - resulting in improvements that include neurological function.