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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.

May 2023
Photograph of white pills and blister pack on blue pastel colored background.

Trials of arbaclofen for autism yield mixed results

by  /  5 May 2023

Autistic children taking the drug showed improvements in some behaviors but not in their social skills.

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April 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: Serotonin drug; psilocybin phase 2; placebo response data

by  /  28 April 2023

This month’s issue of the Going on Trial newsletter explores why it’s more fun to have a beer with friends than by yourself — and how that informs an ongoing clinical trial for autism.

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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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Illustration of a room with DNA sequence wallpaper and three doors leading to abstract new environments.

The future of autism therapies: A conversation with Lilia Iakoucheva and Derek Hong

by  /  14 April 2023

If a therapy for autism’s core traits makes it to market, it will likely take one of three forms, the researchers say.

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Long-tailed macaque in the canopy of a fruiting strangler fig tree, surrounded by ripening figs. Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo.

RNA therapy restores gene function in monkeys modeling Angelman syndrome

by  /  7 April 2023

The result raises hopes for an ongoing clinical trial in people — and offers fresh insight into the biology of imprinting and the UBE3A antisense transcript.

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Research image of radial glial cells in a human brain organoid.

Immune molecule alters cellular makeup of human brain organoids

by  /  5 April 2023

The changes may help explain the link between maternal infection and autism, though more research is needed.

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March 2023
Illustration of a single patient in a clinical trial sitting on a bed in a glitchy, imperfectly rendered room.

Lessons from n-of-1 trials: A conversation with Joseph Gleeson

by  /  30 March 2023

Some conditions are too rare for conventional drug trials, leading some scientists to test bespoke treatments in single participants. Gleeson discusses the merits — and limitations — of these tiny trials.

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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: Trofinetide approval for Rett; n-of-1 ASO therapies; cord-blood deals

by  /  30 March 2023

This month’s issue of the Going on Trial newsletter examines personalized therapies for rare conditions, Acadia’s new drug for Rett syndrome and developments in a cord-blood program, among other autism-related drug trial news.

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Computer-generated image of mountains against a black background.

Detecting a signal amid noise in autism early-intervention research

by , ,  /  28 March 2023

Studies of behavioral treatments for autism are complex and can easily be misunderstood. Here we provide some guidance.

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Research image of cultured neurons.

Cannabis compound rebalances signaling to quell seizures in mice

by  /  22 March 2023

Cannabidiol (CBD) blocks the action of a molecule that drives an overexcitability feedback loop in a rodent model of epilepsy.

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