Autism shocker: Disorder linked to hundreds of mutant genes

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(CBS) Is there a gene for autism? Actually, a pair of new studies show that the debilitating neurodevelopmental disorder can be caused by hundreds of different genes. Scientists say the findings help explain why boys are more vulnerable to autism - and can lead to new treatments.

For the studies - published in the June 9 issue of "Neuron" - scientists looked for mutated DNA segments among genetic samples from more than 1,000 families with an autistic child. They found that children with autism had more of these mutations - known as copy number variants - than their autistic-free siblings.

"Before, it was like looking at the map of the United States. There was good enough resolution to tell the states and the big cities," Dr. Christian Schaaf, an assistant professor in the department of molecular and human genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine told HealthDay. "Now, the resolution is so much higher, you can look at individual streets."

Examining these "streets" is what led researchers to discover that boys are more vulnerable to the genetic mutations found in autism.

"It seems to take more hits or more damage to the genome to lead to autism in girls than in boys," Dr. Andy Shih, vice president of scientific affairs for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, told HealthDay." That may start to explain some of the sex biases, that boys are more vulnerable genetically." Boys are 4 to 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls.

Will these findings lead to a cure?

"This type of knowledge is a critical first step in developing novel treatment approaches," Dr. Michael Wigler, professor from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, N.Y., said in a written statement.

One out of every 110 children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). People with an ASD may experience difficulties with social interaction, communication, intelligence, or behavior.

The CDC has more on autism spectrum disorders.

[rf35]

Perhaps it actually is just diagnosed more in boys than in girls. Some of the milder symptoms are actually considered normal, even expected in females.

Maybe you circumcision proponents out there would find it a good idea to remove the testes of all boys at birth since there is a possibility that testosterone is somehow linked to autism. Heck, that makes as much sense as chopping off their foreskin!

[KPeters_from_UK]

Some of the milder symptoms are actually considered normal, even expected in females.

I'm curious. Which traits?

[casionova]

Thats a pity, if it affected girls more than boys finding a cure would be a much higher priority.

[KPeters_from_UK]

Higher priority? You mean like heart disease? Heart disease affects more women than any other disease and yet more information on how and symptoms of heart disease affects men and treatment for men out weighs the information on and for women.

[SkepticalMom]

It's fabulous that researchers have learned that de novo mutations appear in children with autism. What they haven't yet wrapped their heads around is the fact that this means something is CAUSING the de novo mutations. That something is environmental, not genetic, therefore autism has an environmental cause that is responsible for the many and varied genetic changes noted in a percentage of the cases studied. Maybe now we can all move on to find what the environmental exposures of these children have been, how they might differ from prior generations, and from their unaffected siblings, and which exposures would create differential responses in boys and girls. For example, what toxin has a synergistic toxicity with testosterone, but estrogen has a protective effect against it? These children are canaries in a coalmine. We need to pay attention NOW, because the rest of us are next.

[eddiewano]

I have aspergers

I have had good success with avoiding all foods that are "man made" so to speak, like white flower... I eat srpouts etc.. I also avoid all chemicals in the drinking water and presitivates etc..

Amla berry extract seems to work at making faces understandable and carefully selected vitamin and mineral supplements are awesom.

There is nothing wrong with my genetics, I just don't like being poisened every day....

This works for me, hope it works for you to...

[slartibartfastibast]

The Journal of Evolutionary Psychology just published a paper that supports the hypothesis that the confirmed neanderthal admixture event(s) provided cognitive variations that were subsequently selected for, sometimes causing a locus of deleterious recombinations in the genomes of children with parents who had selected one another for those characteristics.
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An excerpt: "The autism continuum could represent a remnant of genetic introgression that took place before humans were the lone species in our genus. Perhaps some of the genes for autism evolved not in our direct ancestral line but in a solitary subspecies which later merged genetically with our line of descent through gene flow."
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The paper is titled "Conceptualizing the Autism Spectrum in Terms of Natural Selection and Behavioral Ecology: The Solitary Forager Hypothesis" and it can be found here: http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP09207238.pdf
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More info can be found in the Wikipedia discussion of the "Causes of Autism" page (including two neanderthal genes strongly implicated in autism (CADPS2 and AUTS2), as well as evidence of neanderthal art and communication (they shared FOXP2)): https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Talk:Causes_of_autism#Neanderthal_Admixture_Hypothesis and if that link doesn't copy properly: http://******/mzLu1e