Author Topic: Autism breakthrough: One protein's sweeping influence on development of autism revealed  (Read 355 times)

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rangerrebew

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Autism breakthrough: One protein's sweeping influence on development of autism revealed

Date:
    December 15, 2016
Source:
    University of Toronto
Summary:
    A drop in one protein is enough to cause autism, according to the results of a new study. Scientists were able to trigger autistic-like behavior in mice that were engineered to have lower levels of the nSR100 protein, which had previously been found to be reduced in the brains of patients with ASD.


FULL STORY
Reducing nSR100 protein levels by half was enough to trigger autistic-like behavior in these animals.
 

As many as a third of autism cases could be explained by a scarcity of a single protein in the brain, Toronto scientists have revealed. The findings provide a unique opportunity to develop treatments for a disorder that is rooted in a motley crew of genetic faults.

Researchers induced autistic-like behaviour in mice by lowering the levels of a protein called nSR100 (also known as SRRM4), which is important for normal brain development. The study, published in the December 15 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, builds on the teams' previous work which showed that the nSR100 protein was reduced in the brains of autistic people.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161215143402.htm
« Last Edit: December 18, 2016, 11:34:31 am by rangerrebew »