Exosomes, the brain’s system for delivering and recycling molecules, can be manipulated to carry therapeutic fragments of RNA or DNA across the blood-brain barrier and into neurons. The ingenious new technique was published 20 March in Nature Biotechnology.
Children with autism and those who have fathers older than 31 both have lower-than-normal levels of proteins that regulate other genes, according to a study published in February in PLoS One.
Regression, a sudden loss of language and social ability, does not lead to more severe autism, according to a study published in March in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. The study suggests that how autism develops does not influence the long-term outcome of children with the disorder.
A new mouse model for autism has obsessive behaviors and is less social and emits fewer vocalizations than controls, according to a study published 17 March in Behavioral Brain Research. These features could be be the result of much higher levels of FAM46, a gene of unknown function that may be involved in signaling between cells.
Rare mutations with strong effects play a key role in autism and schizophrenia, according to a study published in February in PLoS Genetics. The study identifies rare harmful mutations in three candidate genes that are more common in individuals with one of the disorders than in controls.
Clumsiness in children with autism may result from the same genetic mutations that contribute to the disorder, according to a study published in February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Researchers have mapped the architecture of a brain circuit active during vision in the cerebral cortex — a region involved in memory and planning — they reported 10 March in Nature.
Two children with Asperger syndrome have disruptions in the PARK2 gene — one child has a duplication in the gene whereas the other has a deletion — according to a study published in February in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
A neurotransmitter called VIPR2, or vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor, is a candidate gene for schizophrenia and, potentially, autism, according to a study published in February in Nature.
