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News- Page 22
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Research : NEW BOSTON AUTISM CENTRE WILL CONDUCT HUGE RESEARCH EFFORT
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Posted by sylvia on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 (16:01:44)
Boston University Office of University Relations, 25/09/2003
Boston University has received a five-year, US$8.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the BU Autism Research Center of Excellence, which will participate in one of the largest autism research efforts ever undertaken.
The BU centre is a collaboration among the BU School of Medicine, Tufts/New England Medical Center, the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Dartmouth Medical School, and is one of eight such multi-site centers established recently as part of NIH’s Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) programme.
The new centre is directed by Dr Helen Tager-Flusberg, a MED professor of anatomy and neurobiology and a CAS psychology professor, and Susan Folstein, a Tufts psychiatry and genetics professor. It brings together investigators in the neurosciences, psychiatry, pediatric neurology, developmental clinical psychology, psycholinguistics and family studies and social policy to collaborate on basic and clinical research on autism and related developmental disorders.
"Until recently, researchers studying autism worked alone on their own little piece of a very large and complex puzzle," says Dr Tager-Flusberg, an expert on the social and language development of children with autism.
"Now we’re beginning to connect the pieces and reach a deeper understanding about what kinds of treatments and preventions are possible. The establishment of a research centre for autism could not have come at a better time. The rate of autism diagnoses is increasing significantly around the world, and no one is quite sure why."
Boston University has been a leader in research on the anatomical roots of autism for more than 20 years. Three MED faculty members - Dr Thomas Kemper, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology, pathology, and neurology; Dr Margaret Bauman, an adjunct associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology, and Dr Gene Blatt, an assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology - have identified specific regions of the brain where anatomical abnormalities are linked to autism.
As part of the new centre, they are leading an investigation on how neurobiological mechanisms in the brain’s amygdala, anterior cingulate, hippocampus, and pre-frontal cortex may be involved in the disorder.
Meanwhile, Dr Tager-Flusberg and dr Alice Carter, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, are heading a study which will follow 300 toddlers diagnosed with autism for five years, evaluating their language, social, and psychological development, among other factors.
Dr Robert Joseph, a MED assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology, who is contributing to several of the new centre’s research projects, will clinically evaluate the children. The study also will examine the effects on parents of having a child with autism.
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Research : X CHROMOSOME MAY PROVIDE NEW CLUE TO CAUSE OF AUTISM
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Posted by sylvia on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 (15:37:55)
Reuters, New Scientist, 09/09/2003
X may mark the spot in the search for the cause of autism, a leading British research scientist said on September 9.
A part of the brain which is key to reading expressions in people's faces and which is affected by the X chromosome could give a new insight into the causes of the disorder, says Professor David Skuse of the Institute of Child Health in London.
"We have not discovered the cause of autism, but in the X chromosome we may have discovered a mechanism that could lead to a cause," he told reporters at the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Manchester.
Dr Skuse noted that 10 times more males than females suffered from autism, and that males had an X and a Y chromosome while females had two Xs. Women suffering from Turner Syndrome - in which they have only one X chromosome - had also been found to suffer far higher rates of autism than their double X counterparts, he said.
Dr Skuse said that the key lay in the amygdala, a part of the brain directly involved in processing emotional expressions seen on another's face. In most people, the facial expression was immediately put in context with the aid of the amygdala, with the widely opened eyes that accompanied both fear and joy being correctly interpreted for what they actually represented.
But in people with autism, the amygdala appeared not to function properly and meant that all such expressions were interpreted as fear. This in turn could explain why autistics rarely made eye contact, Dr Skuse added.
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Research : SEVERITY OF AUTISM 'MAY DEPEND ON VERSION OF BRAIN GENE INHERITED'
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Posted by sylvia on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 (15:27:00)
New Scientist, September 5, 2003
Whether boys with autism suffer a severe form or just a mild version might depend on which version of a brain gene they inherit, according to a new study. And it is possible that the same gene variants influence the language and social skills of people generally.
Studies on twins and families have shown that heredity plays a big part in autism, but there seem to be many genes involved, and pinning down the ones responsible for autism is proving difficult. Instead, Dr Ira Cohen, a psychologist at NYS Institute for Basic Research in New York, decided to look for gene variants that affect the severity of the condition.
Some people with autism have higher levels of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, in their blood, but no genes involved in serotonin synthesis have been directly linked to autism. So Dr Cohen's team looked at the gene coding for monoamine oxidase A (MOAO), an enzyme that inactivates serotonin.
A variation in the length of the control region at the start of the MAOA gene determines how much of the enzyme is produced. Men have only one copy of the gene, since it is found on the X chromosome, and approximately a third of them have the form that results in lower MAOA production.
The team tested 41 autistic boys to see which variant of the MAOA gene they had. They found a clear link with the children's language and social skills. "Boys with less enzyme are not doing as well, not keeping up with their peers," says Dr Cohen. "Whereas boys with the high- activity form show better progress in language and other skills."
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Research : NEW DANISH STUDY RULES OUT THIMEROSAL LINK TO AUTISM
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Posted by sylvia on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 (14:08:50)
Associated Press, 01/09/2003
Autism rates in Denmark do not appear to be linked to thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative once added to some childhood vaccines, according to an analysis of three decades of data.
An apparent increase in autism rates in Denmark began shortly before the discontinuation of thimerosal-containing vaccines there in 1992 but continued for several years thereafter, the study found.
"Thimerosal has been eliminated from childhood vaccines in most industrialised countries," said lead author Dr Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen. "If indeed thimerosal were an important cause of autism, (autism rates) should soon begin to decline in these countries. We did not see this decline," said Madsen, whose study was published in the September 2003 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Although the amount of mercury in vaccines was small, vaccine makers in the United States began phasing out thimerosal a few years ago as a precaution recommended by public health officials.
Mercury can cause neurological damage in high doses. Many parents of autistic children think that increases in the number of recommended childhood vaccines are to blame for the apparent autism surge, though many scientists think that this just a coincidence.
The Institute of Medicine in the United States reviewed the issue and in 2001 said a potential link between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders was unproven but medically plausible. The Institute, a private advisory group to the US government, recommended additional research.
The Danish researchers examined data on 956 children diagnosed with autism from 1971 to 2000. They said the autism incidence rate had climbed steadily from less than one child per 10,000 in 1990 to nearly 5 per 10,000 in 1999, seven years after thimerosal was removed from vaccines in Denmark.
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Research : SCOTTISH PARENTS DENIED ACCESS TO AUTISM REPORTS
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Posted by sylvia on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 (13:50:55)
Glasgow UK - Sunday Herald, 24/08/2003
Studies quoted by the Scottish Executive as evidence of the safety of vaccines containing mercury - linked by some studies to autism in children - are being withheld from the public.
"Factsheets" issued by the Committee on Safety of Medicines to those concerned about research which suggests that vaccines containing mercury can trigger autism in some children claim that two new studies prove that the jabs are safe. But these studies have not been scrutinised by independent experts as part of the peer review process, which all scientific studies must go through to be considered valid.
Autism campaigners have accused the Executive of arrogance for telling parents to "just take their word" that the jabs are safe. The diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough vaccine (DTwP), which contains thimerosal - a mercury-based preservative - is given to hundreds of thousands of babies aged between two and four months every year.
Following research suggesting that mercury can cause autism in children, the Scottish Executive announced that parents would be allowed to choose mercury-free jabs for their babies. But parents have complained that they struggle to persuade doctors to administer the alternative jabs. The mercury-free vaccine, Infanrix, is more expensive.
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