Autism Gene tagged posts

Autism Gene Study finds Widespread Impact to Brain’s Growth Signaling Network

A side-by-side look at the brains of a normal newborn mouse and one lacking the autism and intellectual disability risk gene Dyrk1a. Mice without the gene display profound microcephaly, along with undergrowth of pyramidal neurons in the cerebral cortex. (Image courtesy of the Page laboratory at Scripps Research.)

Mutations to Dyrk1a gene lead to brain undergrowth; an existing drug rescues the condition in newborn mice. Damage to the autism-associated gene Dyrk1a, sets off a cascade of problems in developing mouse brains, resulting in abnormal growth-factor signaling, undergrowth of neurons, smaller-than-average brain size, and, eventually, autism-like behaviors, a new study from Scripps Research, Florida, finds.

The study from neuroscientist Damon Page, PhD, describes a new mechanis...

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