Developmental pathways for autism spectrum disorder

[Au Naturel]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-metabolism-autism-reveals-developmental.html

 

[Seladon]

Really interesting and encouraging news!

How are they defining ‘cell danger’, I wonder? As an infant I had keyhole surgery on my gut due to sclerosis—does that count?

 

[The Pandector]

Some of us say we would not accept a cure for their autism. This questions whether we would employ interventions for our offspring.

Sounds plausible. Frankly, I am a little nervous about anything coming out of UCSD. Last I heard, they were experimenting with chemical ‘therapies’ that literally burned away all those unwanted synapses that cause many of us such trouble. Yeah, a little nervous about UCSD, though I am a poorly informed layman.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Go to the article that this is referring to: Metabolic network analysis of pre-ASD newborns and 5-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder - Communications Biology

What this study demonstrates, in summary, is one method of screening for an autism-associated metabolic condition. Keep in mind, there may be autism variants without this condition. However, this is a step in the right direction towards helping medical doctors, not psychologists, with a potential autism diagnosis.

This is encouraging news, for myself, because this adds further proof that autism is first, a prenatal, genetic, developmental medical condition, with associated anatomical and physiological components, and the psychological and psychiatric components are secondary and tertiary. Find and treat the underlying cause whenever possible, not just the symptoms.

 

[vergil96]

I see a possible confusion of cause and effect. If you have more synapses, it's easy to visualise how the signals get stronger. At least for me it's easy to see it and even calculate it roughly. Stronger signals will elicit fight or flight responses more easily. Anyone would be frightened more by a tiger roaring than a mouse squeaking or the rustle of leaves. It makes evolutionary sense as well.

There seem to be many studies and press articles that overemphasise the role of stress and autoimmune conditions in many medical conditions. Similarly, losing weight is being portrayed as a panaceum. The thing is, these studies, articles and interventions such as diet coaching or meditation are easy to perform - that's why they are done frequently. It's difficult to track something more complex and it consumes more time, resources and requires more expertise.

 

[Misty Avich]

I don't believe in autism having anything to do with "gut" bacteria because it never specifies which "gut" and that word always reminds me of slang or slur rather than a word used medically. So I don't believe any of it.

 

[Au Naturel]

Statistical analysis has been done that pretty firmly establishes that a very high percentage of autism is genetically mediated. Epigenetics and environmental exposure contribute from 10% to a third. (Twin studies.) That doesn't mean some of those can't also have a genetic component. There could easily be autistic genes that don't turn on unless a certain environmental factor intervenes.

There are something like a hundred "prospect" genes that have been identified as being "statistically linked" to autism. There are also a couple of genes that 100% guarantee autism if you have a pair. It "runs" in certain families.

Lots of factors tend to confound precision. Let's say you have a twin pair growing up in different homes, and one passes barely under the autism wire while the other just hits it. Individuals who did not meet the criteria for an autism diagnosis but showed elevated autistic traits. Autism at the margins is a subjective call.

Two adjacent genes on a chromosome will appear to be tightly correlated to each other even if they encode for completely different products. That might be what is happening in the study.