Autistic people have an increased risk of suicide, according to a meta-analysis published 15 March in Molecular Autism that garnered much attention from researchers on Twitter this week.
My first, first-author paper is now published and available to view! Eeep ???????? https://t.co/rZnHZhwJpX
— Victoria Newell (@victorianewell_) March 15, 2023
The team, led by Victoria Newell of the University of Nottingham, pooled data from 36 studies involving a total of 48,186 autistic and possibly autistic participants. It found that about 34 percent had thought about suicide, and roughly 22 percent and 24 percent had planned or attempted suicide, respectively.
“Very important work confirming that suicidality is highly prevalent in both autistic and possibly autistic people,” tweeted Myrofora Kakoulidou of King’s College London.
Very important work confirming that suicidality is highly prevalent in both autistic and possibly autistic people. https://t.co/SN8FPibtuE
— Myrofora Kakoulidou (Myrto) she/her (@MyroforaKakou) March 18, 2023
“Sadly not unexpected findings. Autistic people have been telling us this for years…” tweeted Lucy Livingston also of King’s College London.
Very high prevalence of suicidal ideation (~34%) & attempts (~24%) in #autistic people w/o intellectual disability, from meta-analysis by @Sarah_NottsUni et al.
Sadly not unexpected findings. Autistic people have been telling us this for years… https://t.co/vDbNrmgVV0
— Dr Lucy Livingston (@Lucy_Livingston) March 16, 2023
The work “shows how much more we need to do in suicide prevention,” tweeted Chris Edwards of the Aspect Research Centre for Autism Practice.
Thank you for pulling together this review (free access!), really important work that shows how much more we need to do in suicide prevention… @arcap_aus https://t.co/8dCKkXDos7
— Dr Chris Edwards (@DrChrisEd) March 17, 2023
“Our team has been working to examine #suicide screening among autistic adolescents, to improve detection and support,” tweeted Kate Wallis of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Thanks for sharing. Important to have the data to improve care for #autistic people. Our team has been working to examine #suicide screening among autistic adolescents, to improve detection and support. Finally receiving needed attention. @CARautism @PolicyLabCHOP https://t.co/qaKfWaqbiV
— Dr. Kate Wallis (she/her) (@kateewallis) March 16, 2023
Another study getting researchers’ attention describes a method for isolating 10 distinct neural stem and progenitor cell types from the developing human brain.
In a thread chronicling the work, published 16 March in Cell, Daniel Dan Liu of Stanford University highlighted the cell-surface markers his team used to purify each cell type.
“My hope is that this study provides a framework for studying the cellular basis of human brain development,” he tweeted.
And here’s our final purification scheme! My hope is that this study provides a framework for studying the cellular basis of human brain development, including cell-autonomous functions and interactions between cell types. 14/ pic.twitter.com/lsLhu1aEBg
— Daniel Dan Liu (@Daniel_D_Liu) March 16, 2023
“This will become a landmark paper for the field,” tweeted Yi Zhou of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Congrats Daniel @Daniel_D_Liu ! This will become a landmark paper for the field. In this study, Daniel and the team precisely purified and functionally mapped out the human neural stem cell lineages in the developing brain using a combination of cell surface markers. https://t.co/0T7vArBXYe
— Yi “Joey” Zhou (@zhoujoeyyi) March 16, 2023
Sattar Khoshkhoo of Brigham and Women’s Hospital called the paper a “very useful resource for studying stem cell populations in the brain.”
Really cool paper and a very useful resource for studying stem cell populations in the brain. https://t.co/VYzdwtgQ2f
— Sattar Khoshkhoo (@SattarKhoshkhoo) March 17, 2023
“Excellent work and exciting findings about glial progenitor cells!” tweeted Xiaoyun Ding of Baylor College of Medicine.
@Daniel_D_Liu Congratulations!!! Excellent work and exciting findings about glial progenitor cells! I’ve been waiting to read your paper since the GRC ???? https://t.co/ZRICGurMIo
— Xiaoyun Ding (@Xiaoyun_D) March 19, 2023
Lastly, Ellen Hoffman of Yale University tweeted out her team’s paper, published 16 March in Cell Reports, which gives a “functional analysis of 10 autism risk genes in zebrafish.”
So excited to announce our new paper on the functional analysis of 10 autism risk genes in zebrafish – published in @CellReports!https://t.co/pwWTg4dBxs
— Ellen Hoffman (@ehoffmanlab) March 17, 2023
Spectrum highlighted Hoffman’s work in zebrafish at Neuroscience 2022.
Loss-of-function mutations in the 10 genes affect the zebrafish’s brain and behavior in distinct yet overlapping ways. For example, the team discovered that the forebrain contributes the most to brain size differences across the genes, a “super exciting” finding, according to Emre Yaksi of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Super exciting “•
The forebrain contributes the most to brain size differences across ASD genes” !— Emre Yaksi (@yaksi_emre) March 18, 2023
“Amazing and so interesting to see some neuroimmune links,” tweeted Gilles Vanwalleghem of Aarhus University.
Amazing and so interesting to see some neuroimmune links https://t.co/0vUA4D8ec0
— Gilles Vanwalleghem (@DrYassum) March 17, 2023
That’s it for this week’s Community Newsletter! If you have any suggestions for interesting social posts you saw in the autism research sphere, feel free to send an email to [email protected].
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If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, help is available. Here is a worldwide directory of resources and hotlines that you can call for support.
Cite this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/WTJO7601
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