To study the genetics of Autism Spectrum Disorder, researchers took skin cell samples of four people with autism with enlarged brains and each of their unaffected fathers. They turned the samples into stem cells, had them grow into mini brains, and compared them. They found that inhibitory neurons were over-expressed in the Autism patients, causing an imbalance of signals. The scientists were able to suppress the over-expressed gene to fix the imbalance. Although the sample size was very small, this study had promising results.
I think this is great news to hear! Autism is a very serious disorder that has very few, if any, treatments. This study is a breakthrough that could lead to effective treatments and possibly even a cure for it, which I never thought would happen.
This is an incredible breakthrough for autism studies! This study is so new and the authors are already preparing to further study these mutations, hopefully resulting in something an even bigger like treatments or a cure. Definitely something to keep tabs on.
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