Not Asthma Related -- New Autism/Fragile X Research

As many of you know, one of my guys, in addition to being asthmatic, also has Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's is on the autistic spectrum, but considered a form of "high functioning" autism. Like his asthma, the origin of this condition is unknown...we plan to test for Fragile X syndrome, which will determine if it's genetic. But it could have been caused by a vaccine, or by some other factor. (I try not to harp on this aspect of things too much.)

So research on Autistic Spectrum Disorders is as interesting to me as asthma research. Today's news was particularly fascinating, as researchers at MIT seem to be having success in treating lab rats with Autsim and Fragile-X related retardation with a particular enzyme.

Here's a snippet:

In a series of experiments on mice, the MIT investigators showed that they could undo the brain damage seen in a condition called Fragile X syndrome by inhibiting a key brain chemical called PAK....

The study raises the intriguing possibility that the brain damage seen in children with the condition can be rolled back and identifies a specific target for potential drug therapies.

"It opens up a new avenue for drug research to treat this condition," said Susumu Tonegawa, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lead author of the paper.

Read the full article.