HARVERD STUDYON GENES IN AUTISM

RECENTLY I SAW ON THE NEWS A HARVERD RESEARCHER HAD FOUND GENES THAT WERE DORMENT IN THE AUTISTIC BRAIN, IT SAID MEDICATIONS WERE BEING THOUGHT OF THAT MIGHT REJUVENATE THESE GENES. HAS ANYONE HEARD ANYTHING ELSE ON THIS. LARRY

Hi Larry, and welcome to IAN.

I think the study you are talking about is the one that found several genes that were linked to autism. It was conducted by the Autism Consortium, a group of Massachusetts research institutions including Harvard. Most of the genes identified were not missing, but were improperly turned "on" or "off." (Genes can be working and active or they can be effectively turned off and doing nothing.)

These weren't genes in the brain, actually, but genes that control how the brain develops and operates. The researchers were saying that even though these were different genes, they were all involved in the same ultimate process: how connections in the brain were formed. From the press release:

"The genes discovered are diverse in function, but all seem to be part of a fundamental molecular network that orchestrates the refinement and maturation of brain connections, or synapses, in response to input from the outside world. It is the refinement of these synaptic connections that is the basis of learning and memory, suggesting that autism at its heart may represent molecular defects of learning."

To learn more, read the press release from Children's Hospital of Boston (another member of the Autism Consortium): http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P1sublevel445.html

In the press release, they say that the hope is for a treatment (maybe a medication) that would turn a gene that had been improperly turned off back on.