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Spectrum: Autism Research News

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Treatments

Efforts to ease the symptoms of autism are beginning to ramp up, with promising candidates in various stages of testing.

August 2022
A young boy puts plates on a dining table.

Yen for routine seeds anxiety in autistic children

by  /  16 August 2022

Interventions that moderate a need for ‘sameness’ may prevent anxiety traits.

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An Ultragenyx employee removes materials from a lab freezer.

Angelman therapy appears safer in restarted trial

by  /  5 August 2022

Interim results from the previously paused trial suggest that doses of the experimental gene therapy drug GTX-102 are well tolerated in children with the autism-linked condition.

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July 2022
A red, white, blue and pink board game-like pathway with several children playing on it sits against a yellow background. The pathway also features several pills, and at the left is a doctor consulting a notepad.

Factors other than autism traits guide therapies for autistic children

by  /  28 July 2022

Most autistic children in the Netherlands have used some sort of treatment, but the number, type and timing varies depending on considerations unrelated to their condition.

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A mother holds her son while on a video call with a doctor.

Access to virtual autism therapy in U.S. could narrow post-COVID

by  /  15 July 2022

When the federal public health emergency expires, so too could temporary insurance coverage of applied behavior analysis conducted remotely. A proposed rule could block those changes, however, at least for people with public insurance.

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The most personalized medicine: Studying your own child’s rare condition

by  /  7 July 2022

A handful of scientists are committed to advancing research on the autism-related genetic conditions their own children have.

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hand points to pause button shape made from pills

Forging a path for vasopressin drugs for autism: Q&A with Suma Jacob

by  /  5 July 2022

After the vasopressin antagonist balovaptan flopped in a late-stage clinical trial, Suma Jacob and her colleagues took stock of all the factors that might have complicated the results.

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June 2022
An illustration of DNA sequencing

DNA may hold clues to oxytocin levels in autistic people

by  /  30 June 2022

Genetic factors could help explain why the ‘social hormone’ failed to benefit autistic people in a phase 3 clinical trial last year.

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Heidi and Hannah Epstein in Los Angeles.

Pinning hope to ketamine

by  /  29 June 2022

Doctors can prescribe it, but evidence that ketamine eases autism traits is still preliminary.

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Brain made up of two different medicines

Meet the company trying precision medicine for autism

by  /  27 June 2022

Swiss biotech Stalicla hopes to bring precision medicine to autism. Experts praise efforts to identify autism subgroups, but evidence to support the company’s claims has yet to be seen.

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Gene therapy targets interneurons to tackle Dravet syndrome

by  /  13 June 2022

The approach, tested in mice, selectively boosts the expression of the autism-linked gene SCN1A in a subgroup of inhibitory cells.

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