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Doctors Reverse With Drugs Autism-Linked Fragile X Syndrome In Mice
An anonymous reader writes "New research by a team of Bangalore-based scientists has given hope to those with emotional problems caused by the inheritance of a fragile X chromosome. The researchers, for the first time in the world, mapped defective connections between nerve cells in the emotional hub of the brain of mice who had Fragile X Syndrome. The research has just been published in the online edition of the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Besides the mapping of these nerves, though, "The NCBS team has shown that even the long-term ravages of the condition could be reversed with medication in mice." Fragile X syndrome is associated with autism, though the conditions do not map directly to each other.
There has to be some way to tie an Indian Call Center Joke into this...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Doctors Reverse With Drugs Autism-Linked Fragile X Syndrome
What?
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
1. Aparna Suvrathan a,
2. Charles A. Hoeffer b,
3. Helen Wong b,
4. Eric Klann b, and
5. Sumantra Chattarji a,1
- Author Affiliations
a National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore 560065, India; and
b Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003
These are lab findings in cells of knock out mice and indicate that the process may be still amenable to pharmaceuticals. All you Asperger's at /. keep this in mind!
In other words, at least 80% of individuals with autism need to find hope for a cure somewhere else.
20% is an insignificant number? Not if your child has Autism. And suppose you had Cancer, would you pass on looking into a treatment because it "ONLY" had a 20% rate of potential improvement?
Hoestly, what is your point?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
The symptoms are similar but they are only tangentially related. The headline is incredibly misleading by suggesting a drug has been produced that can reverse autism, which is of course not true.
Both the /. and original news headline claim that scientists have found a way to "reverse" the fragile-x syndrome, but the study simply says that they have "mapped" the defective connections. That doesn't mean they know how to fix them yet...
From June 27, 2007:
Autism Reversed in Mice at MIT Lab
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
My oldest son has Fragile X and is diagnosed in the Autism spectrum. It's an incredibly impairing disability, and I'll be asking his doctor to keep on eye on the clinical trials.
On a side note, as well voiced thus far, what headline is the hell up with what is there? For cryin' out loud.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
They supposedly mapped the connections involved.
They previously determined what enzyme caused the damage and found something to inhibit it.
They *assert* that they could possibly reverse the damage using this inhibiting enzyme. COULD.
Inhibiting damage can prevent. You cannot inhibit damage already done. Inhibition and reversal are not the same. Nor are the two syndromes involved.
Times of India ranks up there with Pravda when it comes to truthful accuracy, especially when it comes to home ground science. The "for the first time" gets read as though nobody had ever done this mapping before. It could as easily mean it was the first time they did it. It has been done before.
The asserted reversal has also been done before. Not by them or by their New York friends, but at MIT.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B