Fragile X Syndrome News and Research

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Fragile X syndrome is the most common form of inherited mental retardation. A problem with a specific gene causes the disease. Normally, the gene makes a protein you need for brain development. But the mutation causes a person to make little or none of the protein, which results in the symptoms of Fragile X.

Researchers receive NIH grant to study mechanisms of auditory hypersensitivity in fragile X syndrome

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder in humans that causes social impairments and repetitive behaviors, and other behaviors on the autistic spectrum, as well as cognitive deficits.

17 Oct 2014

Specific perceptual learning deficit associated with Fragile X Syndrome

Researchers at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have described for the first time a specific perceptual learning deficit in mice with a mutation of the same gene as found in children with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS).

9 Oct 2014

Study examines relationship between maternal iron intake and offspring autism risk

Mothers of children with autism are significantly less likely to report taking iron supplements before and during their pregnancies than the mothers of children who are developing normally, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

23 Sep 2014

Treatment at earliest age reduces symptoms of autism spectrum disorder

Treatment at the earliest age when symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear - sometimes in infants as young as 6 months old - significantly reduces symptoms so that, by age 3, most who received the therapy had neither ASD nor developmental delay, a UC Davis MIND Institute research study has found.

9 Sep 2014

Researchers reveal how alteration of single nucleotide could initiate fragile X syndrome

Researchers reveal how the alteration of a single nucleotide—the basic building block of DNA—could initiate fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability. The study appears in The Journal of Cell Biology.

2 Sep 2014

Study shows bryostatin plays key role in slowing or reversing Alzheimer's disease

Neurotrope, Inc. (OTCQB: NTRP) today announced that results from a new study, entitled, "PKCe Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease Brains and Skin Fibroblasts," published in the recent edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and co-authored by Tapan K. Khan, Ph.D.; Abhik Sen, Ph.D.; Jarin Hongpaisan, Ph.D.; Chol S. Lim, Ph.D.; Thomas J. Nelson, Ph.D., and; Dr. Daniel L. Alkon, each of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI), provide further indication of the role that protein kinase C epsilon (PKCe) may play in the potential treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

19 Aug 2014

Study: Socialization emerges as relative strength in boys with fragile X

Standard scores measuring "adaptive behavior" in boys with fragile X syndrome tend to decline during childhood and adolescence, the largest longitudinal study of the inherited disorder to date has found.

30 Jul 2014

Deleting enzyme favorably impacts behaviors associated with autistic behaviors

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder that causes obsessive-compulsive and repetitive behaviors, and other behaviors on the autistic spectrum, as well as cognitive deficits. It is the most common inherited cause of mental impairment and the most common cause of autism.

24 Jul 2014

Research leads to better understanding of neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental diseases

Throughout our lives, our brains adapt to what we learn and memorise. The brain is indeed made up of complex networks of neurons and synapses that are constantly re-configured.

18 Jul 2014

Agricultural pesticides raise risk of autism in unborn children

Pregnant women who lived in close proximity to fields and farms where chemical pesticides were applied experienced a two-thirds increased risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental delay, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found. The associations were stronger when the exposures occurred during the second and third trimesters of the women's pregnancies.

23 Jun 2014

UT Southwestern launches regional brain tissue collection program

To promote greater understanding of autism, UT Southwestern Medical Center has launched a regional brain tissue collection program that will support research on this condition, which affects an estimated one in 68 children.

18 Jun 2014

Children with autism experience deficits in immune cell that protects against infection

Children with autism experience deficits in a type of immune cell that protects the body from infection. Called granulocytes, the cells exhibit one-third the capacity to fight infection and protect the body from invasion compared with the same cells in children who are developing normally.

9 May 2014

U.Va. researchers named recipients of 2013 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Awards

University of Virginia neurologist Dr. Erin Pennock Foff, biologist Sarah Kucenas and biomedical engineer Shayn Peirce-Cotter have been named recipients of 2013 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Awards to benefit children of the United States. Each scientist will receive $100,000 in direct annual research support from The Hartwell Foundation for three years.

19 Apr 2014

Experimental anticancer compound appears to reverse behaviors associated with schizophrenia

Johns Hopkins researchers say that an experimental anticancer compound appears to have reversed behaviors associated with schizophrenia and restored some lost brain cell function in adolescent mice with a rodent version of the devastating mental illness.

1 Apr 2014

UC Davis MIND Institute named Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center

The UC Davis MIND Institute has been named an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, through a prestigious grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health - a distinction held by only a handful of neurodevelopmental centers nationwide committed to the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and amelioration of developmental disorders such as autism, fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome.

14 Mar 2014

Atypical development can be spotted at 12 months of age among siblings of children with autism

Atypical development can be detected as early as 12 months of age among the siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder, a study published by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and UCLA has found.

6 Mar 2014

Protein that controls Drosophila nervous system may play role in reversing brain injuries in human

A protein that controls the metamorphosis of the common fruit fly could someday play a role in reversing brain injuries, said Duke University researchers.

28 Feb 2014

Research: Motor proteins transport mRNA to get where it is needed, prevent diseases

Scientists have found that mRNA may travel one way down a cell, then board another, aptly named motor protein, and head in the opposite direction to get where it ultimately needs to be.

27 Nov 2013

AMP 2013 to focus on genomics, proteomics, informatics, reimbursement and optimization of patient care

AMP will host its largest ever annual meeting next week with an expected attendance of more than 1,700 molecular diagnostic professionals plus 1,300 representatives from more than 180 exhibiting companies. With more than 25 hours of educational sessions and 350 poster presentations, the AMP 2013 Annual Meeting is the premier source for educational information on all things molecular.

5 Nov 2013

Researchers describe why current medications only moderately reduce Fragile X symptoms

When you experience something, neurons in the brain send chemical signals called neurotransmitters across synapses to receptors on other neurons. How well that process unfolds determines how you comprehend the experience and what behaviors might follow. In people with Fragile X syndrome, a third of whom are eventually diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, that process is severely hindered, leading to intellectual impairments and abnormal behaviors.

24 Oct 2013