Smoking during pregnancy may up autism risk in grandchildren
A woman who smokes while pregnant may increase autism risk in her daughter’s children.
A woman who smokes while pregnant may increase autism risk in her daughter’s children.
Some children with autism carry harmful mutations in the DNA found in mitochondria, the cell’s energy producers.
Researchers have put together a set of strategies and computer programs to identify mutations in mitochondrial DNA that contribute to disorders such as autism.
Reports of a century-old drug that reverses autism-like symptoms in mice raise key questions about the complexity of translating promising research into real treatments.
A single dose of a drug used to treat African sleeping sickness temporarily improves symptoms of autism in a mouse model, according to a study published last week in Translational Psychiatry.
MeCP2, the protein mutated in Rett syndrome, is normally responsible for boosting the expression of a large number of genes. This finding, published 3 October in Cell Stem Cell, may explain why growth factors that promote protein production are able to reverse features of the syndrome in mice.
A century-old drug created to treat African sleeping sickness reverses several autism-like features in a mouse model of the disorder, according to a study published 13 March in PLoS ONE.
Fish engineered to express fluorescent proteins allow researchers to follow the paths of migrating mitochondria, the cell’s energy producers, according to a study published 14 November in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Mitochondrial deficits may account for the range of symptoms and neurological deficits seen in autism and explain why it preferentially affects boys, says Douglas Wallace.