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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: fragile X syndrome

April 2023
An illustration of a scientist on a stage with a giant pill bottle that has been chopped in half.

Company on brink takes psilocybin to trial for fragile X syndrome

by  /  25 April 2023

The phase 2A trial has its detractors despite positive animal results and is being sponsored by a company that is struggling financially.

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March 2023
Illustration of a gloved hand reaching down to place a pill bottle on a pedestal.

Debut drug for Rett syndrome at edge of approval

by  /  2 March 2023

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to make an approval decision on the first-ever drug for girls and women with Rett syndrome by 12 March.

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February 2023
Illustration of a sheet of red and white pills, with the red pills arranged in the form of a question mark.

Going on Trial: Orphan drugs; CBD; bumetanide

by  /  28 February 2023

This month’s newsletter takes a close look at the orphan drug program in the United States, several cannabis-based therapies and a secondary analysis of bumetanide, among other new developments in autism-related drug trials.

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an image of a neuron

Neurons struggle to spike without fragile X gene

by  /  17 February 2023

FMR1 loss impairs sodium channels, hindering mouse neurons from generating the electrical signals needed to transmit information.

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January 2023
A hand reaches from above to add a pill to a stack that is resting against the x-axis of a graph.

Going on Trial: Arbaclofen reboot; cell implants; psilocybin microdoses

by  /  25 January 2023

Going on Trial rounds up new developments in autism-related drug trials. This month we’re revisiting decade-old data from a trial of arbaclofen for fragile X syndrome and looking into a new implant-based approach to quelling seizures, among other treatment strategies.

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Research image showing neuronal activity in mice exposed to high-frequency sounds.

Missing mechanism helps solve fragile X protein mystery

by  /  24 January 2023

Cells from people with fragile X syndrome overproduce — but don’t accumulate — proteins. New work suggests that excessive protein breakdown may account for this discrepancy, and explain some of the syndrome’s traits.

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Lab images of cilia.

Autism and the cell’s antennae

by  /  4 January 2023

Many autism-linked genes are somehow tied to cilia, the tiny hair-like sensors that stud a cell’s surface. But the question remains whether, and how, cilia differences contribute to the condition.

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November 2022
A white mouse sits on a nest against a blue background.

Mouse models help sniff out olfactory differences in autism

by  /  16 November 2022

A range of presentations at Neuroscience 2022 tie atypical social behavior to trouble discriminating between odors in the animals.

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Scan of a zebrafish brain showing neuron activity.

Decoding sensory brain networks: A quick take at SfN with Ethan Scott

by  /  15 November 2022

Scott describes his work on sound processing differences in the brains of zebrafish that model fragile X syndrome.

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Single astrocyte on black background.

Mouse studies cast astrocytes as stars of sensory perception

by  /  13 November 2022

Data from two separate research teams suggest the cells are key to sensory hypersensitivity in fragile X syndrome.

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