Tag Archives: science
Promising news from International Rett Syndrome Foundation
The IRSF International Rett Syndrome Foundation <irsflash@rettsyndrome.org> announced today that it is funding a Phase 2b placebo-controlled, cross-over study of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) in a larger group of Rett syndrome patients. This decision indicates that the Phase 1 trial showed … Continue reading
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Tagged autism, gene therapy, growth factor 1, health, international rett syndrome, IRSF, medicine, mental-health, research, Rett syndrome, science
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Microglia eating synapses in autism?
It has been known since the groundbreaking work of Carlos Pardo (see his profile in my book) that the brain in autism is in an immune-activated state. In postmortem samples, there is evidence of microglial activation and cytokine increases. The … Continue reading
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Tagged autism, autoimmune disease, cytokine, inflammation, maternal infection, microglia, research, science, synapse pruning
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More evidence linking prenatal factors with autism risk
The major study of 10,000 autism cases in Denmark by Atladottir et al. firmly established the risk of maternal infection and autism in the offspring, particularly for a viral infection in the first trimester. In new work presented at the … Continue reading
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Tagged autism, cytokine, inflammation, IVF, maternal infection, research, science
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New immune-related autism reports from IMFAR
asdresearchinitiative points out on his/her blog 5 abstracts from the current International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), run by the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). The abstracts are all from UC Davis/MIND Institute. One puzzling finding in the Schwartzer … Continue reading
Breakthrough in epidemiology of bipolar disorder
Far less is known about the environmental and genetic risk factors for bipolar disorder (BPD) than for schizophrenia (Sz). However, at the recent meeting of the Sz International Research Society in Florence, Alan Brown of Columbia Univ presented data from … Continue reading
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Tagged autism, bipolar, depression, flu, health, influenza, maternal infection, medicine, mental-health, research, schizophrenia, science, third trimester of pregnancy
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Hyraxes are telling us something
In chapter 7 of my book, I take up the question of how to make and characterize animal models of autism, schizophrenia and depression. In the case of autism, one of the defining features is a loss or lack of … Continue reading
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Tagged autism, communication, research, rock hyrax, rodent models, science, ultrasonic
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Infectious Behavior 