A Cure for Autism: current events 1

Have you ever heard of the disorder autism? Autism is a disorder of children, that can follow one into adulthood, that is characterized by impaired communication, emotional detachment, and excessive rigidity. In other words, autism in which children usually have a brain of someone younger than them. For example, if you are fourteen, your brain could work as the brain of a six year old’s brain does. Scientists think they have discovered a new treatment for autism. They ran lab tests on mice using a number of drugs, one of which will be tried on human patients sometime next year, that can improve the disorder and reverse the symptoms of some types of autism. At this point, the research shows that the drug will only treat one type of autism caused by the mutation of a gene on the X chromosome. This type of autism is called the fragile X syndrome. However, the scientists say that there may be a chance that these drugs could be effective in other types of autism, ones where there is an unknown cause. Mark Bear, one of the scientists that led the mice research, said, “I really hope that we can go beyond fragile X and see significant improvement in children with other types of autism.”

Out of every 150 children, one child is struck by autism. Right now, there is no cure for this disorder. Why autism occurs is still unknown, but scientists relate it to a number of different genes. Fragile X syndrome is said to lead to mental problems because it causes hyperactivity of a protein found in the brain which is called metabotropic glutamate recepetor (mGluR5). This is a protein that usually helps in learning and memory. A team led by scientist Mark Bear thought that if the mGluR5 levels were lessened, could the autism be cured? To test there hypothesis, the team used genetic engineering and selective breeding to create mice that had the fragile X syndrome and reduced levels of the mGluR5 protein in the brains of the mice. Their goal was to see the result of what would happen when the mGluR5 protein was reduced using a drug in autistic humans. What the researchers really found was the mice that were supposed to be autistic actually had near-normal brain functions and memory. The scientists now know that the reduction of the mGluR5 protein could cure some types of autism. A drug is already in the making to block the mGluR5 protein, however. It is supposed to reverse autism symptoms in humans. It is not yet determined, though, if the drug is really helpful until it will be tested on human patients. Some scientists are against this drug because they say it is not guaranteed that this drug will be effective. They say that autism is a very complex disease, so it may not be able to fully make patients normal again. There are many other drugs being made to cure autism. Most of them are formed around the same idea-the blocking of the mGluR5 protein. Hopefully, these drugs will be effective.

I think that the fact that scientist are actually trying to find a cure for autism is amazing. It is always cancer or diseases like that are given the importance. In school, I don’t like it when I see autistic people. It makes me think, “How can I help them?” Now, autistic people around the world will be helped!

SOURCE: MSNBC

HYPERLINK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22328395/

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