Deletion of a gene in 22q11.2, a chromosomal region linked to autism and schizophrenia, leads to small head size in mice, according to research presented Saturday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego. Mice with a large deletion in this region show disrupted brain connections, and struggle with learning and memory.
Mutations in a gene that plays a role in producing cholesterol in the body increase the risk for autism, suggesting therapies for some people with the disorder, according to research presented in a poster Tuesday at the Autism Consortium’s 2013 Research Symposium.
The American definition of autism travels well in the U.K. and Finland, but cultural differences in Finland affect how mild symptoms of the disorder are interpreted, according to a new study published 10 October in the journal Autism.
Autism, epilepsy and intellectual disability share certain risk genes, and mutations in these genes recur in multiple individuals. The preliminary results were presented Friday at the American Society of Human Genetics Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Researchers have found the first direct evidence that a hopscotching gene destabilizes the 15q13.3 chromosomal region, and may be to blame for the region’s role in autism and other brain disorders. They presented the unpublished results Wednesday at the American Society of Human Genetics Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tim Roberts knits together physics, medicine and technology to trace the origins of language processing problems in the brain, hoping to identify a telltale signature, or biomarker, for autism.
Triggering immune defenses in pregnant monkeys can lead to repetitive behaviors and social problems in their babies, according to a study published 4 September in Biological Psychiatry.
A virus that ferries healthy copies of the Rett syndrome gene across the blood-brain barrier can reverse symptoms in female mice that model the disorder, according to a report published 21 August in the Journal of Neuroscience. The approach is the closest yet to simulating a workable treatment for the autism-related disorder.
A new statistical model pulls together information about inherited and spontaneous mutations in a single analysis to enhance the search for autism candidate genes. The method, called transmission and de novo association, or TADA, was described 15 August in PLoS Genetics.
Depleting excess levels of a molecule involved in neuronal signaling prevents the cognitive and motor symptoms of Angelman syndrome in a mouse model of the disorder, according to a report published 15 August in Cell Reports.