Doctors Reverse With Drugs Autism-Linked Fragile X Syndrome In Mice 63
An anonymous reader writes "New research by a team of Bangalore-based scientists has given hope to those with emotional problems caused by the inheritance of a fragile X chromosome. The researchers, for the first time in the world, mapped defective connections between nerve cells in the emotional hub of the brain of mice who had Fragile X Syndrome. The research has just been published in the online edition of the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." Besides the mapping of these nerves, though, "The NCBS team has shown that even the long-term ravages of the condition could be reversed with medication in mice." Fragile X syndrome is associated with autism, though the conditions do not map directly to each other.
Where There's a Will There's a Way (Score:3, Informative)
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What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Doctors Reverse With Drugs Autism-Linked Fragile X Syndrome
What?
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They might be.
If they had said "Doctors reverse Autism-linked Fragile-X syndrome with drugs" it seems that Fragile-X syndrome with drugs" is what is being reversed.
It would have been more-easily-understood if the article was titled "Autism-Related Fragile-X Syndrome Reversed With Use Of Drug Treatment"
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Seriously, I had to read that headline so many times to parse it, I think either I or the submitter is autistic.
Great , now we just need a cure for dyslexia .
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That is a really -bad- headline.
Removing two whole words would fix it too (words that aren't really required in the headline)
Doctors Reverse Autism-Linked Fragile X Syndrome In Mice
Really now... how they did it doesn't need to be in the headline.
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These days, headlines aren't for reading by humans, but by search engines. If "Autism drugs" is a trending search, it's a perfect headline - the words are even adjacent. It's the sad modern word of news.
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Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Re:What? (Score:4, Funny)
Doctors Reverse With Drugs Autism-Linked Fragile X Syndrome
What?
Editors are sick of people not reading the summary so they're making the headline incomprehensible. Your move.
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Not true. The Japanese have been doing experiments on whales for some time and the incontrovertible conclusion is that they taste very nice.
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Not true. The Japanese have been doing experiments on whales for some time and the incontrovertible conclusion is that they taste very nice.
Apparently dolphins taste quite similar, but bioconcentrate more mercury, so Japanese are very upset that they have apparently often been sold dolphin as whale. Not for the dolphins, mind you; they're willing to kill whales for food, we already know they're morally bankrupt. They're just upset at the mercury danger to their children. Witness the awesome power of industrialized society to abstract away ecological disaster. I like my whale steak with some BP sauce.
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Do you prefer that all experimental compounds would be tested directly on humans? Do you know how many compounds do not pass even the animal testing stage?
The tests on animals are not supposed to find drugs that can be used on humans (AKA people), but are supposed to find candidate drugs to be tested on a small set of humans (AKA Phase 0 of Phase I clinical trials [wikipedia.org]). If these trials are successful the researchers go on to the next stages of testing. It is a foregone conclusion that most compounds will fail i
DUH (Score:2)
A "DUH" moment.
Fragile X syndrome is associated with autism in humans [wikipedia.org]. It does not map directly to classical autism because there are additional symptoms that are not always present in autism, and most people with autism do not have the fragile X genetic defect.
So it is not clear whether a drug that cures fragile X in humans would help most autistic people.
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It's with a machine from German translated think I.
Headline...? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Candidate research subject
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The headline with minimal editing was written.
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Written by Yoda it was.
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Drugs Autism is a special form of Autism where you can't communicate with drugs.
A Drugs Autism-Linked Fragile X is something unknown which is in danger of being broken by someone with Drug Autism.
Now doctors have used that to reverse a syndrome in mice.
SCNR :-)
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We're not done looking for solutions (Score:2, Insightful)
Up to 20% of boys with autism have the condition due to Fragile X.
In other words, at least 80% of individuals with autism need to find hope for a cure somewhere else.
What Is Your Point? (Score:4, Insightful)
In other words, at least 80% of individuals with autism need to find hope for a cure somewhere else.
20% is an insignificant number? Not if your child has Autism. And suppose you had Cancer, would you pass on looking into a treatment because it "ONLY" had a 20% rate of potential improvement?
Hoestly, what is your point?
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maybe not the best example, as there is not a singular cancer, but multiple. Ok, they all revolve around cells dividing in a erratic manner, but cancer in different parts of the body trigger for different reasons.
Re:What Is Your Point? (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps more to the point, if a cure works in the 20% of sufferers who's condition includes X and you are in that 20%, it's great news. It is unfortunate that it doesn't help the other 80%, but it';s not like that makes it a failure.
Re:What Is Your Point? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Many autistics don't want a cure, they would probably welcome getting some of the obnoxious symptoms under control, but for many Autistics, being cured of autism would be like Negroes being cured of negroism!
everyone from India? cure for slashdoters? (Score:2, Interesting)
1. Aparna Suvrathan a,
2. Charles A. Hoeffer b,
3. Helen Wong b,
4. Eric Klann b, and
5. Sumantra Chattarji a,1
- Author Affiliations
a National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore 560065, India; and
b Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003
These are lab findings in cells of knock out mice and indicate that
Misleading headline. Fragile X != Autism (Score:4, Informative)
The symptoms are similar but they are only tangentially related. The headline is incredibly misleading by suggesting a drug has been produced that can reverse autism, which is of course not true.
Just been published? (Score:1)
Misleading headline, "mapped"=/="reversed" (Score:2, Interesting)
Related Slashdot post from June 27, 2007 (Score:4, Informative)
From June 27, 2007:
Autism Reversed in Mice at MIT Lab [slashdot.org]
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Social Behavior Transformed With One New Gene [sciencedaily.com] and Gene Mutation Is Linked to Autism-Like Symptoms in Mice, Researchers Find [sciencedaily.com] will give you an idea of the differences.
Sweet. (Score:4, Interesting)
My oldest son has Fragile X and is diagnosed in the Autism spectrum. It's an incredibly impairing disability, and I'll be asking his doctor to keep on eye on the clinical trials.
On a side note, as well voiced thus far, what headline is the hell up with what is there? For cryin' out loud.
Submitter Destroys with Bad Headline Comprehension (Score:1)
How awkward...
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The horse raced past the barn fell down. Ha - made you reparse!
Doctor Reversed Nothing (Score:5, Informative)
They supposedly mapped the connections involved.
They previously determined what enzyme caused the damage and found something to inhibit it.
They *assert* that they could possibly reverse the damage using this inhibiting enzyme. COULD.
Inhibiting damage can prevent. You cannot inhibit damage already done. Inhibition and reversal are not the same. Nor are the two syndromes involved.
Times of India ranks up there with Pravda when it comes to truthful accuracy, especially when it comes to home ground science. The "for the first time" gets read as though nobody had ever done this mapping before. It could as easily mean it was the first time they did it. It has been done before.
The asserted reversal has also been done before. Not by them or by their New York friends, but at MIT.
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Tea Parties In Rabbit Holes (Score:2)
I read the wiki article. Epistemology, thus neuroscience, is a main area of interest for me. I'm very reticent about jumping on the band wagon for stuff like this just because what we call mind and behaviour is very complex. The American biologist, Gregory Bateson [wikipedia.org] wrote a couple of wonderful, thought provoking books, 'Steps to an Ecology of the Mind', and, 'Mind and Nature'. In 'Mind and Nature' Bateson referenced an idea made famous by A. Korzybski [wikipedia.org] that Bateson put as, "The Map Is Not The Territory, And Th
Unfortunate side-effects. (Score:1)
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I'm aware of a study that was retracted by the Lancet, authored by a gastroenterologist who had his license to practise medicine revoked that talked mentioned MMR, is that the one?
Huh (Score:2)
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Drugged Autist Mice Reverse In Fragile Doctors With X-Linked Syndom
Good one