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...autism - and treating it. And that is why a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Neuron is bound to generate excitement, even though the work was done in rodents. It shows that wide-ranging symptoms of Fragile X, which include epilepsy, impaired mental functioning, aberrant brain structure and other abnormalities, can be reversed. The work, researchers say, holds enormous promise for humans with Fragile X and probably for other forms of autism as well...
...people have Fragile X Syndrome, with boys more severely affected than girls. People with the disorder tend to have elongated faces and prominent ears; about half of them fall somewhere on the autism spectrum and most are mentally retarded or learning disabled as well. Fragile X occurs when the brain fails to produce normal quantities of a chemical known as the Fragile X mental retardation protein, or FMRP. This protein appears to act as a brake on the production of other proteins in the brain, including those associated with learning and memory. Without enough FMRP, protein production spins...
Scientists have suspected that FRMP exerts its braking action by attaching to receptors on the surface of brain cells, known as mGluR5 receptors (the Glu is for glutamate, a key signaling agent in the brain). They reasoned that it would be possible to correct the excesses of Fragile X by blocking these receptors, which act as accelerators of protein production. To test this idea, the researchers produced a special breed of mice that had the Fragile X trait but only half the normal number of mGluR5 receptors. The result, explains Bear: "We were able to correct the excesses [of Fragile...
What was especially remarkable was the number of ways the intervention reversed Fragile X symptoms. The specially bred mice had fewer seizures, more normal brain structure, a more typical rate of body growth and they performed better on a learning task than mice with uncorrected Fragile X. The experiment suggests that treating Fragile X with a drug that inhibits mGluR5 receptors could have similarly healing effects...
...Treating Parkinson's disease is much more complicated than just using stem cells to produce more dopamine, as Kinsley wishes. Stem-cell growth and dopamine production can't always be controlled, and too much dopamine can cause involuntary movements and hallucinations. Embryonic stem cells transplanted or injected into the brain have produced mixed results in both animals and humans. Parkinson's affects the whole brain, and dopamine alone cannot cure it. Why should I hope for an ethical cure? My wife has been living with Parkinson's for nine years. Steve Maloney, Franklin...