Protein found in brain cells may be key to autism

[Ohio Joe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12759587

Imagine if they create a vaccine.

[Botany]

1. thank you for posting

And if the right wing has its way we can say good bye to all this
science based on biology, genetics, biochemistry, and evolution stuff.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Deep13]

3. Interesting, but I'm not going to hold my breath for a treatment.

Looks like this line of inquiry is in its infancy.

[MedicalAdmin]

4. Key phrase here is "may be."

Which is scientist speak for more study funding please.. This research is in its infancy at best.

The problem I have with the symptomatic approach to medicine is that it often doesn't look at why a condition or set of symptoms exist, but if focussed on supressing those symptoms and calling it a day. While this approach is fabulous for acute medical treatments, it misses the boat all too often in chronic cases.

My medical director calls her staff "resort doctors" because we are often the clinic of last resort for many of our patients. We did an analysis of our main demographic of patients and found that they were seen, with out a positive outcome, by an average of 12 doctors before getting treatment at our clinic and finding success. We deal almost exclusively with chronic conditions, metabolic diseases and pain management so we are a self selecting demographic base and, yes, I do realize the inherent limits of such self selection. This example was provided for anecdotal reasons, not statistical. Disclaimer, disclaimer, blah, blah, blah. (so please keep any chanting of "wooooooo" quite - people are sleeping)

[mercuryblues]

5. The question is

If they developed a vaccine, would Jenny Mcarthy give it to her kids?

[Javaman]

7. No, her head will explode from the conflicting concepts. nt

[Javaman]

6. It must have been all those meat based vaccines.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Mods, you my delete this if you like. LOL

[KamaAina]

8. All that tells me is you neurotypicals aren't getting enough protein in your diets

:P

[Motown_Johnny]

9. I don't know if a vaccine is possible, it isn't an infectious disease

More like a birth defect, if my understanding is correct. This article presents the condition as being the result of some sort of mutation in a specific protein (Shank3).


It also says this raises the hopes of an effective drug treatment.

To me this could be better than a "vaccine". An effective treatment can help those already suffering from this affliction instead of simply preventing it in the future.

[azul]

10. A cure would save much suffering.

Worth investing in, and the evidence is amassing. The incidence is increasing, like many other modern diseases, and that behooves us to act.


"Dr. Bourgeron and his colleagues used very detailed methods to screen over three hundred individuals with autism spectrum disorders in order to detect any type of small scale chromosomal abnormality or DNA sequence change. Three families with important changes were identified. In two of these families, one copy of the gene was damaged, leading to formation of a disrupted SHANK3 protein in the affected individuals. All of the children carrying these mutations had been diagnosed with autism and had severely disrupted language. In the remaining family, one child with autism and language delay was found to be missing a copy of the gene, while their sibling with Asperger's and precocious language development, was actually found to have an extra copy of the gene. These results clearly reveal that changes in the SHANK3 gene can be associated with autism spectrum disorders. Additionally, it suggests that the synaptic pathway in which SHANK3 operates is very sensitive to the number of copies ("dosage") of the gene, and that language and cognitive defects can result if the pathway is disturbed in any way."

http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science_news/shank3_mutations.php


My cousin married someone with high-functioning Asperger's and their daughter is just amazing at verbal communication.