A new study published Wednesday in the weekly journal “Nature” proved the tremendous power of the brain when it indicated it might be possible to reverse the symptoms of autism.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied the process of essentially rewiring the brain by “turning on,” or reactivating, a gene later in life. This gene produces the Shank3 protein, which is found between neurons and permits communication in the nervous system. The lack of functional Shank3 proteins causes autism-like symptoms in mice and accounts for about one percent of human autism cases.
The study involved genetically engineering the mice. The researchers turned off the Shank3 gene during embryonic development and later added tamoxifen into the mice’s diet, turning the gene back on.
“Shank3 is a rare cause of autism, but the general principle that the adult brain has a certain degree of plasticity can more generally be applied to many different causes,” said Guoping Feng, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and the lead author of the study.
The main breakthrough of the research was the revelation of the degree of the brain’s plasticity into adulthood, even after the brain has stopped growing.
“We knew the brain had some degree of plasticity,” Feng said, “but to this degree, that an adult brain with a genetic defect was able to return to a more normal state was quite surprising.”
Although the symptoms of the deactivated gene were significantly reduced when the gene was reactivated closer to birth, reactivating the gene later in adolescence still helped reduce most of the symptoms. While Feng said it is a stretch to look for a complete cure, using this study can help scientists and the general public better understand autism itself.
“This is a study of mice,” he said. “We have a long way to go from applying this information to humans, so I don’t want to give false hope. But just showing that the brain is plastic, in combination with other studies, I do hope that in the future we can develop a much better way to treat autism.”
Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of the Center for Autism Research and a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University, stressed the importance of studies such as that done by the MIT researchers.
“Animal models are critical for telling us what function in the brain certain genes play,” she said.
Tager-Flusberg said she is optimistic about the potential of this study.
“Obviously, mice do not socialize in the way that we do,” she said. “But I’d like to think that any breakthrough such as this is a potential step forward in fighting autism.”
Feng agreed that the data gained from the study could be utilized for future autism studies.
“We still have a long way to go in applying this information to humans,” Feng said. “There are several obstacles to overcome, but in the long run, it is very possible to develop this into gene therapy to correct some of the mutated genes.”
In terms of the role the study plays in understanding autism, Feng said this is only the beginning.
“The next step is to understand what causes these general defects,” he said.
Despite the fact that a cure for autism is not likely to be found in the immediate future, many parents of children with autism maintain hope that research will eventually lead to further discoveries.
“I think that these studies give a lot of hope,” said Ashley Palermo, 38, of Austin, Texas. Palermo is the mother of a 4 year old with autism. She said the uniqueness of the varying causes of autism causes greater need for more general findings in the field.
“There’s a saying that if you’ve met one child with autism, then you’ve met one child with autism,” Palermo said.
Although she does not know the cause of her son’s autism, Palermo said she is hopeful that further research will solve some of the mysteries surrounding it.
“There [are] two camps of parents who have kids with autism,” she said. “There’s one camp that says, ‘My child is fine and that I need to embrace the uniqueness of my child and help to integrate them into society.’ I’m of the other camp, which believes in looking for a cure, but I also think that in the meantime, we do need to help others accept our children into society.
Stop vaccinating infants. There’s your cure.
Stop vacine infants and there’s a good start
Oh for crying out loud! I listened to some idiot who told me not to vaccinate my children so I didn’t and my youngest is autistic so please shut up!! There is no link between vaccines and autism!!
Mareli without sounding disrespectful the overwhelming
statistics indicate otherwise
Mareli, I agree with you! My child had her first meltdown just hours after birth. The lights and noises in the nursery caused her to have sensory overload. She has Asperger’s and is exceptionally bright, but still cannot handle excess sensory stimulation. Vaccinations did not increase her symptoms nor reduce them, but I sure as hell would not want her to die from something that could be prevented by a vaccination. I did not cause her to be on the spectrum, but I would have been responsible if she had died from something preventable because I failed to have her vaccinated. Think on that all you vaccination haters. Are you willing to admit you were the cause of your child’s death or illness? Please don’t say it’s God’s will either, because it is your will and responsibility not God’s!
The other 99%, it is vaccine damage! And the CDC and the AAP, they know it! Just how
does one stop the Gasto intestinal (GAS) pains, that could kill an elephant? that’s plaguing
our children? It’s trapped by inflammation in the bowel, by a vaccine strain measles virus.
The diseased bowel, is effecting the motility, and in some of the severe cases, it paralyzes
the bowel. Not allowing, poop or gas to pass. That in-turn, causes excruciating Gas pains that effect the mental state of the child, thus causing a type of psychosis.
A flight or fight response, is then triggered. And that frightened behavior then, is (wrongly) perceived by the mainstream medical community as just being in their words. As bad autistic behavior. When in reality, the child is suffering greatly, like a 4th stage cancer patient. And with the CDC being so paralyzed, apparently by what they did. No real help, was ever coming from the CAA research, that’s being done. NONE! The higher up’s, evidently had decided that our (vaccine damaged) suffering children. They were just considered, as acceptable collateral damage.
Those pretending to help our children, are of the caliber of the three stooges / Basically Nazi scientist.
The Congressional created IACC, is pretending to be busy finding a treatment. They have spent to date, over 1 billion dollars of the CAA funds in ten yr’s since Congress created them.
And they have not to date, given us a single treatment. Nothing, in ten yr’s!
Maybe, it’s because, almost every study is designed purposely, to blame the parents genes
or their life style. Here is irrefutable proof, that those that have been charged with finding
a treatment or cure. They are working night and day,to hide what they have done to our children, with their very dangerous vaccine program.
This is a 17 yr. Senior CDC scientist whistle blowers own words, he is suggesting that Congress take the data from the CDC, because the CDC is so paralyzed by anything! related to Autism. He admits, that he has a boss, who’s asking him to lie. He said, that the higher ups wanted to do certain things, and I went along with them. When one says “the lowest point in my career, was when I went along with that paper” You have a very serious integrity problem, that’s going on in the regulation of this Nation’s vaccine program.
Here’s the link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8697rSvIqhg
And here is another link, with even more of his own words,that show that these people, that we trusted, have gone over the edge by what they done to generations of this Nations children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Xpl4uYRBc
When one says. Oh! my god, I cannot believe we did what we did, but we did. That smacks, as egregious fraud. And when one says from the heart, that he has great shame by what he did. You can be assured, that he’s telling the truth. For he has no reason, to burn his career to the ground. It appears, this man has reached the point of saturation, of what he’s willing to do to keep his job. Poisoning children, he came to the conclusion, was not in the job description. And he has refused to do it anymore.
This 17 yr. Senior CDC scientist words, is irrefutable proof of massive corruption, in our public health agency’s. The agencies, that we trust, to tell us the truth about what they are injecting into our children.
He admits, that the CDC is grinding to a halt on this issue. Because the CDC he says, has not been transparent, he said we’ve missed 10 yr’s of research because the CDC is to afraid of finding an association to vaccines/ Autism.
This is Florida Congressman Bill Posey’s own words to Congress, begging them to do their job and investigate the CDC’s fraud concerning Autism and vaccines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGRjn_gIJw0
This research is interesting but not applicable yet to humans.
The odd fact is that there is a lot of additional research in the medical literature on therapeutics that can already be applied in humans but many researchers and most practitioners are ignorant of it. For example double-blinded trials in the medical literature have found that the following supplements positively affect mood or behavior in the context of autism: methylcobalamin, carnitine, n-acetyl-cysteine, sulforaphane, and James Adams’ multivitamin including sulfur. To be clear there is some risk especially with sulforaphane and to a lesser extent n-acetyl-cysteine.
Question: Isn’t it time to start using some of this knowledge?
In the actual article it states there are varying causes of autism ,vaccinations may cause autism in some and not others and autistic people may not have been vaccinated there is obviously a bigger picture to look at here