MicroRNAs may play an important role in the development of autism spectrum disorder, according to a new paper by University of California, Santa Barbara professor Kenneth S. Kosik.
Kosik, co-director of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute and the Harriman Professor of Neuroscience, was senior author of the paper, "Heterogeneous Dysregulation of microRNAs across the Autism Spectrum," published this month in the journal Neurogenetics.
"There is such a broad interest in autism," Kosik said. "This is the first work in this area."
Autism is a neurological disorder that impairs social interaction and communication, usually before a child turns three years old.
In addition, Kosik's research discovered that autism may be even more genetically diverse than previously thought. "We can't continue to look at this (autism) as a monolithic entity," Kosik said. "This is not a single disease."
Instead, his paper revealed that microRNAs have a unique type of genetic signature that shows the very broad underlying diversity of autism. While many studies lump together all cases of autism, some recent papers have reported mutations among small numbers of autism patients. Kosik's microRNA research shows that autism does indeed cover a broad spectrum.
Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, is a link between DNA and protein. Some RNAs, according to Kosik, do not make a protein. One such type of RNA is called a microRNA because it's very short. While there are 23,000 genes in the human body, there are about 1,000 different microRNAs.
The short RNA sequences can bind to many different, longer RNAs and inhibit them from making the protein, Kosik's study found. "In this manner, they exert a broad regulatory control over the expression of many different proteins," he said. And many of the genes they control are involved in brain development.
"It was of interest to find that various members of the microRNA family are frequently dysregulated in autism," Kosik said. "This result points to a single control layer in the cell that can change in quite different ways with autism as the end result."
Source: UCSB
Related stories:
Scientists view both Obama, McCain as supportive
(AP) -- Call it the political revenge of the nerds. For nearly eight years, many mainstream scientists have been frustrated with the Bush administration. They've claimed that science has been censored, ignored and politicized on issues from global warming to stem cells to evolution. Even the presidential science adviser was booted from the White House, forced to set up office down the street.
Aberrations in region of chromosome 1q21.1 associated with broad range of disorders in children
Researchers have discovered a submicroscopic aberration in a particular region of human chromosome 1q21.1 that appears to be associated with a variety of developmental disorders in children. The aberration can manifest itself as unexplained mild or moderate mental retardation, growth retardation, learning disabilities, seizures, autism, heart defects, other congenital abnormalities, cataracts, small head size, unusual facial features, hand deformities, or skeletal problems. Some people who have the aberration are only slightly affected or apparently unaffected, others are more seriously impaired.
The first autism disease genes
The autistic disorder was first described, more than sixty years ago, by Dr. Leo Kanner of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (USA), who created the new label 'early infantile autism'. At the same time an Austrian scientist, Dr. Hans Asperger, described a milder form of the disorder that became known as Asperger Syndrome, characterised by higher cognitive abilities and more normal language function. Today, both disorders are classified in the continuum of 'Pervasive Developmental Disorders' (PDD), more often referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
New schizophrenia genes uncovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered new genes linked to schizophrenia, it has been revealed. In two papers published in
Nature today (July 30), scientists identify four mutated gene regions that may hold the key to producing new tailor-made drugs to treat the devastating mental illness.
Mental disorders cost society billions in unearned income
Major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion annually in lost earnings alone, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study was published in the May 2008 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Novel chromosome abnormality appears to increase risk of autism
A multi-institutional study involving Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has identified a chromosomal abnormality that appears to increase susceptibility to autism. In a
New England Journal of Medicine report that is receiving early online release, the investigators – most of whom are associated with the Boston-based Autism Consortium – report that a segment of chromosome 16 is either missing or duplicated in about 1 percent of individuals with autism or related disorders, a frequency that is comparable to other genetic syndromes associated with the disorder.
Carnegie Mellon study identifies where thoughts of familiar objects occur inside the human brain
Experts trained algorithm to extract patterns from participants' brain activation scans
A team of Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists and cognitive neuroscientists, combining methods of machine learning and brain imaging, have found a way to identify where people’s thoughts and perceptions of familiar objects originate in the brain by identifying the patterns of brain activity associated with the objects. An article in the Jan. 2 issue of PLoS One discusses this new method, which was developed over two years under the leadership of neuroscientist Professor Marcel Just and Computer Science Professor Tom M. Mitchell.
Hopkins researchers release genome data on autism
Researchers at Johns Hopkins’ McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine today are releasing newly generated genetic data to help speed autism research. The Hopkins data, coordinated with a similar data release from the Autism Consortium, aims to help uncover the underlying hereditary factors and speed the understanding of autism by encouraging scientific collaboration. These data provide the most detailed look to date at the genetic variation patterns in families with autism.