Scientists identify key receptor as potential target for treatment of autism

[AGXStarseed]

(Not written by me)


JUPITER, FL - September 30, 2015 - Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have uncovered a significant--and potentially treatable--relationship between a chemical that helps transmit signals in the brain and genetic mutations present in a subset of individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

The new research findings, which were published recently in the journal PLoS One, focus on the role that the neurotransmitter serotonin plays in the development of social behavior. Serotonin, together with the serotonin receptors it activates in the brain, plays a significant role in neurological processes, including mood, anxiety, aggression and memory.

The study made use of an animal model of mutations in the gene Pten, a risk factor present in a subgroup of individuals with autism. Treatment of this model with a drug that suppresses the activity of a particular serotonin receptor, 5-HT2cR, can have a dramatic effect.

"Our research shows that targeting one specific serotonin receptor can reverse social deficits in a mouse model of the autism risk gene Pten," said Julien Séjourné, the first author of the new study. "This discovery is important for understanding the role of this specific subtype of serotonin receptor in autism-relevant behaviors and could lead to new therapeutic strategies."

"We found a striking contrast between the effects of dialing down the activity of the receptor using a drug, which improved social deficits in the Pten model, versus removing the receptor completely by mutation, which actually impaired social behavior," added TSRI Assistant Professor Damon Page, who led the study. "Important issues will be uncovering the mechanism by which modulating serotonin receptor activity can influence autism-relevant symptoms and identifying the time window and dose range where targeting serotonin receptors is most effective."

Page was recently awarded a $2.4 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of The National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further study the relationship between abnormal patterns of brain growth, neurotransmitter signaling and the behavioral and cognitive symptoms in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

"The new grant will let us expand our research into the relationship between specific risk factors, altered brain development and key neurotransmitter systems, with the ultimate goal of moving toward individualized treatments for particular subgroups of individuals with autism spectrum disorder," he said.

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In addition to Page and Séjourné, other authors of the study, "Social Behavioral Deficits Coincide with the Onset of Seizure Susceptibility in Mice Lacking Serotonin Receptor 2c," are Danielle Llaneza of TSRI and Orsolya J. Kuti of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0136494

The work was supported by Ms. Nancy Lurie Marks and the National Institutes of Health.

The number of the grant is 1R01MH105610.

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SOURCE: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/sri-sik093015.php

 

[Myway]

Um. We don't need to be changed. I am not sure what they are talking about. I love having autism. I wouldn't change that. Treatment is all relative and some people want it and others don't. I am one that is against treatment for mild autism. Now severe autism maybe, but I think people should be very careful about how they say things to our type of community.

 

[malortie]

Page was recently awarded a $2.4 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of The National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further study the relationship between abnormal patterns of brain growth, neurotransmitter signaling and the behavioral and cognitive symptoms in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

I already posted a reply in response to a similar situation, stating how much sad I find the fact that there are many ways of improving support for Autism in education centers such as schools/colleges/universities, and these support would take drastically less time than these high cost researches.

Um. We don't need to be changed. I am not sure what they are talking about. I love having autism. I wouldn't change that. Treatment is all relative and some people want it and others don't. I am one that is against treatment for mild autism. Now severe autism maybe, but I think people should be very careful about how they say things to our type of community.

Very often, NT people who do not have sufficient knowledge in Autism spectrum tend to be hesitant/hostile toward unfamiliar behavior. One of the most common situations is when you meet someone who tells you to act as other people, or simply ask you if he/she acts properly with respect to the typical behavior found in today's society system.

One simply cannot define what behavior is. It would be as if you try to define what beauty is, not possible, as there are specific definitions of what the beauty is. The same applies with behavior. People often do speak about "How strange you act" and how it differs from theirs, as if there was only one unique prescribed behavior.

If you behave in a particular way, it is because you convince/afflict this to yourself by thinking that you are doing the right choice, but there has never been a right way of acting, and when people have almost never been exposed to these traits, they believe that any divergence with the "recommended" behavior will get them in trouble, which is an explanation for such intolerance toward traits that most of us bear.

Of course, there is nothing wrong in disliking a particular trait. Some people have different preferences. But the issue is where the lack of tolerance is.

Remember: to accept and to tolerate is not the same thing.