latest research on cure for autism

• Get Press Releases

• Media Contacts
• News Releases
• Photos & B-Roll Downloads
• VUMC Facts and Figures
• Credo Award
• DAISY Award
• Elevate Team Award
• Health, Yes
• Employee Spotlight
• Five Pillar Leader Award
• Patient Spotlight
• Pets of VUMC
• Tales of VUMC Past
• All Voice Stories

Explore by Highlight

• Community & Giving
• Education & Training
• Growth & Finance
• Leadership Perspectives
• VUMC People

Explore by Topic

• Emergency & Trauma
• Genetics & Genomics
• Health Equity
• Health Policy
• Tech & Health
• Women's Health

Explore by Location

• Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt
• Vanderbilt Bedford County Hospital
• Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks
• Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network
• Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
• Vanderbilt Kennedy Center
• Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital
• Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital
• Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital
• Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital
• Vanderbilt University Hospital

• Photos & B-Roll Downloads

Featured Story

Emergency & Trauma

The lifeflight legacy: 40 years in 40 photos, july 29, 2024, study sheds new light on autism, but there’s more work to be done.

A target of their investigations is serotonin, a signaling molecule that is well known for its critical roles in regulating mood and which also plays an important role in the development of the brain and nervous system.

Researchers from Columbia and Vanderbilt universities, the University of Illinois Chicago and colleagues across the country are making steady progress in their decades-long quest to understand autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a brain development condition that affects social interaction, communication and behavior.

In a recent study, the researchers measured blood levels of serotonin in women whose children were diagnosed with ASD. Some of the children carried rare genetic variations that strongly contribute to the risk of autism, while others did not.

In their paper, published July 4 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation , the researchers reported that higher serotonin levels were primarily found in women whose children who did not carry the rare variants.

This finding suggests that elevated maternal serotonin levels are associated with autism in a subset of children who have multiple common genetic or environmental factors which likely contribute to risk. Elevated levels are not found as frequently when a single, rare genetic variant explains most of the risk.

The link between autism-associated genetic variations and maternal serotonin levels was first described more than 60 years ago.

But it is a complicated picture that is not fully understood, noted James Sutcliffe , PhD, a pioneer in autism genetics at Vanderbilt University.

The study probed genetic samples from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Autism Center of Excellence and from the UIC and Vanderbilt sites of the Simons Simplex Collection , a repository of samples from 2,600 families of children with ASD maintained by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

The study did not have a control group — it did not compare maternal serotonin levels to those from women whose children do not have autism. Another limitation was that serotonin blood levels in the women were measured after their children had been diagnosed with ASD.

Taking measurements throughout pregnancy would provide a more complete picture of how maternal serotonin levels may relate to autism risk, said Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele , MD, the Ruane Professor of Psychiatry and director of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

Veenstra-VanderWeele is corresponding author of the paper. Before coming to Columbia in 2014, he directed the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and was medical director of the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders ( TRIAD ) at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.

Sutcliffe, who co-authored the paper, is associate professor of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics and of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt.

Other co-authors are Edwin Cook , MD, also a pioneer in autism genetics who directs the Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UI Health, and colleagues from New York University and Yale University School of Medicine.

While the true nature of the relationship between serotonin levels and ASD remains elusive, clinical trials are underway at Vanderbilt and elsewhere to evaluate drugs that, by impacting the serotonin system, may relieve irritability or improve social functioning in children with autism.

Genetic studies also have led to the identification of other, possibly related health conditions in children with ASD, including previously undiagnosed cardiac abnormalities and severe epilepsy that occurs during sleep, Sutcliffe said.

The investigators hope that further research may lead to targeted interventions based upon ASD-associated genetic variation or biomarkers. That, Veenstra-Vanderweele said, would be “transformative” for children who are severely affected by autism.

Related Articles

January 28, 2016

Autism study links sensory difficulties, serotonin system.

Vanderbilt researchers have established a link between the neurotransmitter serotonin and certain behaviors of some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a link that may lead to new treatments for ASD.

By VUMC News and Communications

January 9, 2014

Brain-gut connection in autism.

An association between rigid-compulsive behaviors and gastrointestinal symptoms in autism spectrum disorder may point to a common biological pathway that impacts both the brain and the gut.

By Leigh MacMillan

November 16, 2017

Study may point to new treatment approach for asd.

Using sophisticated genome mining and gene manipulation techniques, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have solved a mystery that could lead to a new treatment approach for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

By Bill Snyder

Breakthrough Treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorder Within Reach: Scientists Discover Key Clue

Scientists in South Korea have succeeded in identifying the cell-specific molecular network of autism spectrum disorder . It is expected to lay the foundation for treating autism spectrum disorder. Published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry , the research was conducted by Professor Kim Min-sik’s team of researchers at the Department of New Biology, DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology).

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability that is known to occur from early childhood. It is a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by continuous impairment of social communication and interaction-related behaviors leading to limited ranges of behavioral patterns, interests, and activities, as well as repetitive behaviors.

Most autism spectrum disorder patients have behavioral disorders, sometimes accompanied by other developmental disabilities. Because there is currently no accurate molecular diagnosis method, early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is made at a fairly late period. Although there has been some success in improving symptoms with behavioral management therapy, there is a lack of effective treatments at the molecular level.

Professor Kim Min-sik’s team utilized the Cntnap2 defect model, a spectral disorder mouse model established by Professor Lee Yong-Seok’s team at Seoul National University College of Medicine to extract prefrontal cortex tissue and performed mass spectrometry-based integrated quantitative proteomic and metabolomic analysis. In addition, by comparing and analyzing this with previously reported big data of autism spectrum disorder patients, the team confirmed that problems occur in networks such as metabolism and synapses in excitable neurons.

Professor Kim Min-sik of the Department of New Biology said, “The multi-omics integrated analysis technology developed through this study has advanced the pathological understanding of autism spectrum disorder and made it possible to discover an integrated network ranging from molecular-level cell differentiation induced by a specific autism gene to biometric information,“ and added, “We are trying to find the core network of autism spectrum disorder and discover treatment targets by conducting an integrated analysis of various models.”

Reference: “Cntnap2-dependent molecular networks in autism spectrum disorder revealed through an integrative multi-omics analysis” by Wooyoung Eric Jang, Ji Hwan Park, Gaeun Park, Geul Bang, Chan Hyun Na, Jin Young Kim, Kwang-Youl Kim, Kwang Pyo Kim, Chan Young Shin, Joon-Yong An, Yong-Seok Lee and Min-Sik Kim, 17 October 2022, Molecular Psychiatry . DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01822-1

This research was carried out with support from the Brain Science Source Technology Development Project of the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Related Articles

Groundbreaking study reveals autism’s genetic triggers and therapeutic hope, a drug that cures autism neuroscience study yields promising results, does autism begin in the womb research breakthrough may lead to new treatment strategies, antidepressant power of lactate revealed in new research, new method uses vitamin d to treat diabetes and protect β cells, new immunotherapy agents stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells, lysosomes may contribute to alzheimer’s disease, yale study links increased impulsivity and hostility with recreational marijuana use, diuretic drug could help treat autism, 282 comments.

In addition to the need for meditative treatments we still require effective behavioral therapy. Speaking from experience, autistic people are effectively locked out of emotional development by peers as they advance. The only solution is to allow us to experience the simultaneous expression of positive and negative emotions used to identify and understand boundaries through playful teasing. We require, beyond any possible contestation, an experience of prosocial teasing. At present we are only exposed to antisocial teasing and people wonder why we behave antisocially.

There is no great mystery here. Positive and negative emotions must be allowed to coexist, simply applying negative enforcement against our positively intended actions WILL NOT CUT IT in the modern world.

Another research into eugenics against autistic minority. Thanks for nothing.

Or, we could simply embrace our quirks and learn to live in harmony without the need to make others that there is something “wrong” with them. Also the word autism is being overused and lumps a bunch of people together under the guide of some “spectrum” disorder which is growing so broad eventually it will exclude only a handful of people. One wonders if perhaps these excluded people are not the ones with the problem…

Exactly. I object to being told I have ‘Autism Spectrum Disordet’. It’s Asperger’s Syndrome and it is NOT a disorder.

Smearing s&*t on walls, having severe meltdowns because your routine is disrupted, and not being able to accomplish basic life skills after hundreds of hours of therapy is not a “quirk”. It’s a debilitating condition that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. If you don’t want a potential cure, fine, don’t deny it to families that are suffering.

thank you so much for this, it scares me sometimes that just because some people with autism are comfortable accepting who they are means i shouldn’t ever have the opportunity to have the life i want. its so selfish to say oh its a “quirk” like guys I’m stuck in my room all day everyday i cant work because i have meltdowns i have a battery of social life meaning keeping friends and making friends is a tiring and painful task. my life is miserable but because someone with asd wants to feel ok with who they are I’m meant to what? suffer in silence and embrace my “quirk”…

Or, we could simply embrace our quirks and learn to live in harmony without the need to make others that feel there is something “wrong” with them. Also the word autism is being overused and lumps a bunch of people together under the guise of some “spectrum” disorder which is growing so broad eventually it will exclude only a handful of people. One wonders if perhaps these excluded people are not the ones with the problem…

Yes! My son is amazing and not disordered. He is not in need of a treatment just because people think everyone should be cookie cutter. Who gets to decide who’s the “normal” to strive for? No thanks. He’s perfectly himself.

No. I hate to be this guy, Mary, but I know from experience that you are setting your son up for disaster with that mentality.

While I have extreme mistrust for Big Pharma and politicians (we have been given many reasons to be mistrusting), you have to recognize that autism IS a disorder and that if your son unquestionably has it (diagnosed), there IS something wrong with him. I went YEARS of my life in total denial of having autism, but when I finally began to understand that it wasn’t the rest of the world’s fault that I wasn’t like them, all the talk therapy and group therapy my parents and my school forced me into suddenly began to be a LOT more useful to me.

Much like any other disease or disorder, there comes a point where you have to accept that lifestyle needs to change in order to cope with the symptoms or be cured.

Also, you replied to a robot.

This is very important, so in case my explanation of key clues was not understood, please allow me to try again.

All social development is a two way street. When an autistic person tries to communicate with a normally developed peer, in most cases, something very specific is happening. The autist is using emotions at an age level which the peer recognizes as beneath themselves, and then the typically developed peer pushes the autist away using a variety of displacement techniques. The autist, regardless of ability to mature, is locked out of a path to maturity by peers because they are locked out of necessary attempts and validations which a normally developed person is able to enjoy across the path of their entire lives.

This all comes down to the essence of teasing. Teasing is the foundation of all complex emotional processing. The ability to hold both positive and negative emotions at the same time and then to place the positive above the negative. There is an exact pattern to this, just as music is of the mathematics of emotion, a particular sequence of emotions is necessary for all positive communication. When we start with a negative and have no means to transform that negative into a positive, only negative experiences can be known. This is the fundamental source of exclusion for autistic people. Nobody wants us to directly express a negative, they expect an internal negative to positive transformation to occur before we speak and displace our negativity into the listener. We would love to give this sort of positive communication preference, and to join you in experiencing connections and the capacity to be emotionally healed by peers, yet we can’t. Such experiences are held by typically developed people and willfully withheld from perceived lesser people through negative teasing.

The only solution is to take us back in time to a younger state and let us realize, for the first time in our lives, that teasing actually can be positive, can build bonds rather than break bonds. You such normal people hide that from us and our gaining an equal footing in this matter should be the primary focus of all behavior therapies. We autistic people claim that ABA Therapy feels abusive and causes trauma, we are not joking.

Give us prosocial teasing.

Left side cerebellum death ,but don’t know when or how it happened ,due to no adoption records,history of ,p,d,d w comorbidities,mild torets syndrome ,life long depression ,last MRI was at age ,15 but pons are stable I have amazing memory especially when it comes to detail ,y’all wanna due a newer MRI for resurch on me ,maybe it will help my 13 year old son who also has autism,us this a possibility.

Stop trying to cure us you good for nothing waste of space, I hope everyone working on that drops dead just leave us alone and let us be who we are, I wish people like you didn’t exist people on the spectrum and everyone else would be better off without people like you bothering us.

Obviously you are able to voice your opinion. Unfortunately there are some on the spectrum who are unable to find ways to communicate what they want\don’t want. I think they would be grateful to find an answer. Not to fit into this crazy world but just to get a glass of water without needing to wail. Glad your not one of those people.

Thank you for standing up for those of us that DO want to be able to both learn and possibly benefit from this kind of research. The autism community needs more people like you who fight for the ones who aren’t just “a bit quirky.” This makes me feel a lot less hopeless.

Jayden, while it’s obvious that Autistics are disabled to greater and lesser degrees, Autistic people who are masked and pass as Neurotypical also have the highest suicide rate in any demographic, so don’t believe we’re not morbidly disabled by society’s demands. By definition, a diagnostic of Autism means we’re disabled. Furthermore, the conditions that you struggle with most are not Autism, they are disorders that non-Autistics have too. I hope these conditions can indeed be better understood. Science is barking up the wrong tree.

Absolutely.

I don’t think anybody is trying to push a cure on individuals who do not want to be cured. But there are types of autism that I hope one day can be remediated. A parent would love to her their non-verbal child say, “I love you”. A child who may be experiencing comorbid issues, such as global developmental delay, should be given the tools to help them succeed in life independently, and every parent would want that, I believe.

Your doing exactly the same as you are complaining about. But worse, saying you wish they didn’t exist. Take a long look in the mirror and have more empathy and patience to what the world is about in its entirety. Don’t be so aggressive, its off putting and your not going to be listened to with that attitude.

This is encouraging. I have 14 yrs autistic twin boys and I pray s solution can be found.

Hi there! I pray for a solution too. I pray that your sons may be surrounded by people who understand that there’s nothing wrong with them, including yourself. I pray that they will receive the accommodations and access that they need to navigate life instead of having to change themselves to conform to this ableist society. I pray that they stay autistic forever because it is part of who they are and they deserve to be themselves just like anybody else.

@Josiah please keep your prayers to your nonexistent God to yourself. I don’t know who died and made you the spokesperson for the autism community, but for some people the anxiety that comes with autism is a serious detriment to their quality of life. If you and your nonexistent God wasn’t their suffering to continue them you are as sadistic and immoral as the God you worship.

Keep up the good fight, Macharia! I have my adult life to owe to my Mom, who worked extremely hard to help me overcome my autism starting from a young age. God bless her.

Gunna do research to cure having different skin colors or different looking eyes? This is so gross, I can’t believe this isn’t just straight out labeled as Eugenics. By presenting this as morally neutral you are contributing to the pathologization and dehumanization of autistic people. Just gross.

These research bodies are narrow-minded. Everything people worry about in their autistic loved ones is not autism specific. Depression, anxiety, apraxia, seizures, EDS, food sensitivities, digestive and/or bowel issues… these things are common with autism but not specific TO autism and is experienced by a broad range of people. This implies these things can be addressed both to improve the quality of life in autistic people AND non-autistic people.

Advancements in alternative communication systems is very useful but also, if you alleviate the other conditions that might be causing stress/strain on them, how would that affect their depression/anxiety/apraxia/terrifyingly repetitive behaviour? We don’t know because research is being spent on curing something that hasn’t been proven to CAUSE these co-morbidities. Treat/cure the co-moebidities and see what autism itself actually causes.

Some of the negative experiences can also be addressed through a more accepting society which would help with other disabled people’s quality of life too and allow more autistic people to grow without being told by all those around them that they can’t or are broken, abnormal. Imagine how depressing and delibitating that would be?

On top of all this, if a treatment is made to manipulate autism out of people’s genetic makeup, who gets to decide who gets the treatment? Some autistic people seem at their worst behaviourally when their parents are in control of their lives and medical decisions. So suddenly we’re in the realm of radical treatments that WILL affect the patient’s personality and MAY NOT solve the co-morbidities, but will likely make life easier for parents… being decided on by the parents. ‘Parents know best’ does not quite fit when it’s something so drastic. Treat the comorbidities that hurt autistics and other people alike… don’t treat something that doesn’t necessarily cause harm directly. (Note the term directly here).

But @DariusSpearman is just going to target this comment and claim “There are a lot of self-appointed spokespeople here trying to speak for the entire autism community.” And Darius will likely assume I am not suffering from co-morbidities which is entirely false. But I don’t assume my comorbidities wouldn’t exist if I wasn’t autistic. Frankly, I don’t know what definition of gaslighting Darius has been using but when you tell ‘a lot’ of people to shove it just because they CAN communicate – that sounds like gaslighting. If there are a lot of us, perhaps you should be taking that into account rather than copy pasting your insults everywhere.

@Catherine Gaslighting is when you attempt to make others feel as if their experiences are invalid, telling them what their problems are (as if you can possibly know), and replacing their experiences with your introduction of them. For example, claiming I “tell ‘a lot’ of people to shove it just because they CAN communicate” when I never said that would be an example of gaslighting. I also haven’t insulted anyone.

You have accused so many people of gaslighting when they are not doing anything of the kind it makes me wondering if your using it for a cover of your own gaslighting by saying that “some” autistic are incapable of making decisions for themselves based solely on their communication skills.

GTFOH, dips***. We’re done. (That, in case you were wondering, is what an insult looks like.)

@darrius you also forgot to call me a loser re*** who is incapable of any adult level interaction. But your 45 years to late for that to any effect on me… I hear it everyother day some entitled NT who thinks they know more about life then I do because the are not ASD

@darrius I guess the next thing your going to prove that your somehow supperiour to me is call me a “loser ret*rd” (sorry you are about 50 years to late for that to any effect on me)

I am not so vulgar as to throw a stick and stones insult back you but I will do one better and say by ignoring any postives to ASD your condeming your son to a future of failure by self-profiling proficies.

No, dips***, I want going to do that, but feel free to continue projecting random statements into me like the dishonest doυchebag that you are!

Read The Asperger Husband by Lisa Merle- a very interesting story of family life

Autism is definitely inherited or can be inherited so why does it develop in very early life?

Autism is more than just personality quirks. For a lot of people with autism, their quality of life is drastically impaired due to a constant assault on their senses. I’m all for embracing difference, but if we can alleviate unnecessary suffering, let’s not call that “eugenics.

Who said we wanted a ‘cure’ ,how many actually autistic people were a part of this study. We struggle yes but we aren’t broken or sick. We have children and families, careers . I don’t need Training to behave as a neurotypical, I need neurotypical people to be more accepting . My behaviours and ‘quirks’ make sense to me. Throw some more eugenics around and see how many more neurodivergent people we can traumatise.

I don’t know who died and appointed the spokesperson for the autism community, but this is not an issue of acceptance. For some people, autism manifests in ways that cause extreme levels of stress and anxiety such that it seriously impairs their quality of life. If yours doesn’t manifest in that way, be grateful. For others whose autism manifests such that daily life is a horrific assault on their senses, to call seeking treatment “eugenics,” is just as evil and intolerant as people who won’t accept your “quirks.”

Thank you so much for speaking up for those of us who aren’t just struggling, but are in Edmonton agony on a daily basis. If these emotional masochist want to struggle then that’s fine, but don’t force it on other people because you were force feed propaganda about how having a harder life makes you more special than everyone else. I’m tired of having to work harder than everyone else around me to do literally anything. I want a job, a family, friends, a life. I just want to be angle to eat at McDonald’s like everyone else’s without having a panic attack and leaving on an ambulance just cause the very cooler wouldn’t stop beeping. And frankly, i think i deserve at least that much.

I agree. As Singer et al. (2022) have stated, “There does not need to be a battle between the two viewpoints around autism vocabulary; there is room across the spectrum to acknowledge that autism can be a state of being for some, an impairing condition for others and somewhere in between for many.”

While I see the value in using all available technologies to dx kids earlier so they may get supports and services sooner- I don’t believe people with autism a “cure” or treatment to change them into “normal” kids. We need to expand what’s called “normal”. The best thing I could imagine for the autistic community is a societal change on “normal’. THAT’S the problem. They ARE normal people. They don’t need to be fixed/ changed. The stigmas, the ignorance, the bullying etc should be what’s “cured”!

I have a child on the spectrum who is nonverbal. What infuriates me time and again are the comments from adults on the spectrum that can communicate and complain about research and that to leave them alone. Well by the looks of it, at least you are able to communicate while parents like me struggle to see our kid struggling to even communicate basic needs. So research is important to help those that need this the most. I worry about my kid being unable to communicate and live on his own when we are no more.

Apraxia of speech is not Autism. Extinguishing the Autism gene will not help with apraxia or any of the other disorders that occur in non -Autistic (Allistic) people too. I wish your child all the best in this non-accomodating, willfully ignorant world.

Bravo. Thank you for that @Concernedparent I thought I had stepped into a different universe when reading some of these comments. Know that I am in the same position as you. My son will be 30 this coming weekend. He is beautiful and special. I have spent the last 29 years caring for and fighting for him. After all back then most doctors didn’t know squat about Autism/ASD etc.. They just labeled him ‘mentally re***ed’ when the changes were truly noticed. But, his communication is severely limited and he definitely cannot do a reply in a website (unlike many here). His speech is his own version (we have come to learn it). He also cannot wash himself, nor feed himself (unable to prepare simple items), he cannot operate a simple game boy, or the newer TVs, he cannot read, doesn’t know letters, numbers, colors etc… He is funny, outgoing and too trusting. Meaning others can easily do harm. I am in the same camp as you. I worry to death what will happen when my husband and I are not here. I have a younger son and while he has said he would take care of him, that is a huge burden to put on someone. To all those who have replied here? At lease you CAN communicate via typing, language and keyboards. Not everyone out there can . Not everyone out there is trying to change who YOU are, or trying to “Control you” (as one person eluded to). Or the whole eugenics thing. (massive eye roll) So maybe, if possible, have some sympathy and compassion for those of us dealing with far more severe forms than you have.

Waste of money and space. Autistics don’t want to be turned into society darlings. Just because y’all don’t want to learn how to be accepting and kind to everyone doesn’t mean we should have to change.

YOU don’t, but some of us do. Don’t try to speak for me. You do not have that right.

You can speak for me with this opinion because I believe in self acceptance and advocacy.

To the concerned parent, that’s not autism. And it’s non-speaking. Just because your child doesn’t speak doesn’t mean they don’t communicate. How about you stop trying to turn your child into an automaton and instead accept them for who they are. A lot of non speaking autistics don’t use verbal language because they feel like no one cares what they have to say. After all, we have our poor sympathy-seeking parents to do it for us.

Respectfully, the fact that you may be on the spectrum doesn’t give you the right to gaslight others. A concerned parent knows their child a lot better than you do. Please speak to your own experiences instead of trying to pretend that you know other people’s experiences better than they do.

And not being on the spectrum doesn’t give you the right to gaslight those who are on it!

@Aryeh F your opinion on this is irrelevant. This conversation is pointless. The research isn’t going to stop no matter how butthurt you are over it. Get over yourself. Peace out!

So when all else fails dismiss anyone who has ASD as being so deaf, blind and stupid that any statement they make is “irrelevant”… You do the Führer proud, Sieg Heil!

@Aryeh F. Yet another example of your blatant dishonesty. I’m not dismissing “anyone who has ASD.” I’m dismissing YOU for being an absolute tool and a doυchebag. You have made several references comparing people’s statements to Naziism, which is the absolute lowest form of dishonest doυchebaggery.

Darius is right. If there’s a new medication that would make it easier for me to “read” people why can’t I take it? Or at least try it? It’s not like everyone else isn’t on drugs trying to cope with the rapidly deteriorating world around us, may as well get some better ones that have less side effects.

Thank you! There are s lot of self-appointed spokespeople here trying to speak for the entire autism community. If you are functioning well enough I’m happy for you, but there are a lot of people whose autism manifests on ways that make their daily lives a living hell. My son can’t even go to the park or enjoy a movie without constant fear of hearing a sound that might trigger him.

Autism is not needing a “cure” or “medication “. It’s not an illness or disorder. It is a difference in the way the brain is wired. Autistic people don’t want or need to be cured. Like others have said, they just want to be accepted for who they are and not what they have. Acceptance is what is needed. It’s common knowledge that the synapses have miscommunicated at some point. Autistic individuals know this and don’t need some busybody interfering and saying a lot of tosh!!

My 9 year old grandson is a non verbal, non potty trained individual. He would love to be understood and be able to fit into a catagory where he can go and play with other kids but he can’t. So he is often crying or whimpering in his quest to be the same as others. I too am desperate for treatment.

I am in awe of the comments of those who say that they don’t want their love one who deals with this issue to be cured. Apparently those who recommend this your child must be on the highly functional side of the spectrum. My son unfortunately is not. He is non verbal and is has anger outbreaks out of this world. I would love for someone to find a cure for autism.

I suspect many of the people saying that are them selves on the spectrum and everything being equal we don’t want to be NT’s (some stuff is easier for us some is harder)

What these self-appointed spokespeople need to understand is that autism is a spectrum disorder that affects people in a variety of ways. For some people it causes unbelievable stress and anxiety that’s seriously impedes their quality of life. This isn’t an issue of just accepting people’s quirks. It’s about alleviating unnecessary suffering.

As someone who is one of the co-founders of a local support group here in NYC and formally has level 2 autism (requires some community support but can accomplish most simple day to day tasks without much help [when I feel like doing them that is!]) I can very much express how much it hinders one both in school and out of school (I am willing to have a piss contest with anyone in terms of messed up K-12 schooling and a very odd ball career path as well as some of my complete failures to live long-term [18+ months] on my own without some “adult” supervision… luckily my GF is also on the spectrum and gets me completely but is a level 1 and thus theoretically more “adjusted” to “earth society” then I am).

So if I had it 100% to do over and have zero of the experiences both good and bad of being on the spectrum I would say sure why not mightiest well get a peek at the manual all the NT’s where given at birth this time around.

But since I have had those experiences I would not trade them in for the more non-going where the wind blows me experiences I have had. In short I do not want to be an NT because of who I am (my memories and experiences) not what I am (autistic) it is impossible to separate the two.

@Aryeh F. No one is asking you or anybody else to be NT. If you are able to function without a “cure,” I’m truly happy for you. There are many people, however, for whom this disease causes extreme stress and trauma such that it makes daily functioning horribly difficult for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with “accepting people as they are.” I’m all for acceptance, but a lot of these self-appointed spokespeople for the autism community Don’t seem to understand that for some people on the spectrum, relief from the constant anxiety they experience would be life-altering.

Even calling it a “disease” is incorrect both in terms of medical jargon (a disease is not something your are born with and/or is innate to how you function/perceive the world) and it is unnecessary abalist.

Let’s instead call it a condition just like say being black skinned is a “condition” (i.e. not much can be done to change it without causing more harm). when was the last time you heard any non-Neo-nazi say black people needed to be “cured”?

I am not a spokesperson for anyone but myself. If due to what ever position other people in and outside of the community put me in I might appear to be speaking for someone besides myself. If other people have similar experiences to me then they will identify with what I am saying and if they have not they won’t.

Finally there are areas where ASD is actually helpful… In the 90’s it allowed me to be one of the co-inventors of streaming media (I was able to do this because I had ASD not despite of it)… But I also spent 12 years in special ed and I wish that on no one… So on balance I have no real regrets about should of beens (for example if I was a NT).

Also please be aware part of acceptance is accepting what you can’t change and that in most cases comes down to accepting what is between someone’s head regardless of how much it fits or does not fit into NT reality.

Anxiety is not my thing but I have major clinical depression co-occurring with my ASD and take anti-depressants for that and they work really well (at least according to everyone else I notice no real difference and that is half the point isn’t it?)

As a member of a support group I belong to said above if you have met one autistic you have met that exactly one autistic and not any other autistic. The also say normal is a setting on the drier. This means if some ASD treat really is effecting me I will work on that trait but I am not willing to throw out the postives of ASD to do so.

Believe it or not, no, I actually want my children to have Asperger’s Syndrome. And I want their children to have Asperger’s Syndrome too.

I don’t want it to be ‘cured’. I want more of us. Thank you.

@Aryeh F While it is technically more accurate to refer to autism as a disorder, it is not inaccurate to refer to it as a disease. It is not ableist and it bears absolutely no similarity to Naziism. Your hyperbole here is reprehensible as are your attempts to gaslight others. This has NOTHING to do with acceptance. No one is asking you to throw away something you see as a positive. If you are not suffering, I’m genuinely glad for you. Many people are suffering, though. I don’t know who died and made you the spokesperson for the autism community, but your attempts to download other people’s suffering just because YOU are not suffering is very disturbing.

If your going to flame me at least have the courtesy to do it as a reply to me not someone else who is not me. And have the courtesy to actual read what I wrote and to see I am making no claims about anyone but my self here (nor even pretending to so). If other people can identify with my situation good… if not oh well.

@Aryeh F I’m sorry you feel “flamed” there was no “reply” box available for your comment which is why I “atted” you. I also carefully read what you wrote and responded.

You are really something. And you’re such a racist. How can you say having black skin is a condition and comparing it to autism. I am totally convinced you are sick and need help. Just speak for yourself and stop pretending you’re speaking for those on the spectrum. If there’s a breakthrough that’s going to help people, those that want to access it have a right to and people like you can pass. Simple as

@ches spoken like a parent who has yet to realize that their kid’s ASD is not going to magically cure it self the day they turn 18 and/or graduate school (which ever comes last).

Stop focusing so much on fixing people who don’t want to be fixed and instead ask what areas we have problems and what solutions can be made to make them less of a problem. This is the primary reason why so many ASD men turn into incels (I am not one of them and I do my best to help those who are on that path just so ASD doesn’t get blamed for another mass shooter)

If you can verbalize that you have autism, you are one of the lucky ones. My 22 year old son cannot do that. Don’t judge people that want to “cure” this disorder… I want my son to be able to live a normal life like you do.

Please define normal… Many of my ASD traits actually *HELP* me professionally… for example my many sensory problems helped me co-invent streaming media in the 90’s (i.e. I didn’t do it despite ASD I did because I saw the world differently)… Don’t get me wrong I spent 12 years in special ed and would not wish that on anyone but at the same time I would not trade my life for for the life of a NT.

I agree with some of the comments here. Why are we trying to change people who are autistic? Are not these people to be celebrated for who they are? There are many autistic people who have mad enormous contributions to society. My son has Asperger’s, and he has a brilliant mind. I wouldn’t want to change a thing. It might be easy for me to say, because my son is not severe, but overall can we not just embrace the diversity? My other son was transgender, and just committed suicide this year. He faced the same fate of people trying to change who he was. I don’t get it.

You could have stopped talking when you said, “It might be easy for me to say, because my Son is not severe.” You are absolutely correct. For whose autism manifests more severely, daily life is an unending assault on their senses causing unimaginable stress and anxiety. I can accept “quirks and differences.” What I cannot accept is my son’s inability to enjoy a park or a movie out of sheer terror that some sound might trigger him.

1st please stop with bs about accepting quirks. If you are able to type then you don’t have debilitating classic autism(like my son). 2nd Korea has a big concentration of autism in a small area where it’s likely highly genetic. This might not be the same in the rest of the world. Autism is a condition with common symptoms but it’s mostly understood that it may have many different causes. Lastly knowing a genetic marker does not mean there is a cure.

Hi Sam. Forgive the interruption but what part of Korea is this high concentration of people with ASD if you do not mind me asking? I have family in the very South part of the peninsula, not far from Busan. Coincidentally this is also where most of my Korean genes can be traced to.

No takeaways from this. The title is missleading

My youngest child has been diagnosed with both severe autism and Kabuki syndrome. I hope this is something that would lead to a treatment that would give her some independence. My fear is that she will end up going to a State run facility if my wife and I have died or are both too old to take care of her.

Jason Cline, thank you so much for your comment. I read as much as I can and listen as much as I can to the community to be the best that I can in this field. I truly care about each child I serve and come from a place of compassion and trauma informed care. This playful teasing you mentioned is so important as is knowing that every expression of excitement is too. Thank you again.

It would be nice if people who should know better stopped talking about ‘curing a disease’. It’s not a disease. Maybe effort should be focused on isolating the causes of the genuine issues experienced by some autistic people and less on ‘fixing’ all autistic people?

If I were given the option of ‘fixing’ my debilitating executive function issues at the cost of my out-of-the-box thinking and ability to hyperfocus, I’d have to take a hard pass.

That and neurotypical people need to do give some serious thought to accommodating people who are different. A lot of the issues many of us face stem from neurotypicals fearing what’s different and trying to force us to be ‘just like them’ and having panic attacks when people act a bit differently.

Normal…. Is… A… Setting… On… A… Dryer!

“Autism parents”: Begin by taking stock of where your child’s strengths are, rather than where their weaknesses are. My son did not fit in public school because they focused on trying to get him to ‘behave normally’. We have been homeschooling for several years and he is now ahead of grade level in several subjects. He’s very bright and incredibly creative. His behavior gradually improved as he learned slowly how to socialize. This is a child the public school system wanted to let fall through the cracks.

Stop trying to ‘fix’ what isn’t broken. We’re not broken.

It seems there are a lot of self-appointed spokespeople for the autism community in these comments. If your quality of life is not seriously diminished due to the constant stress and anxiety that autism can manifest in, I’m truly happy for you. For those whose lives are made of living hell due to the constant assault on their senses, their suffering isn’t a matter of “acceptance.” Being on the spectrum doesn’t give you the right to gaslight others seeking relief from their suffering.

Based largely upon me being born during W.W.II (food rationing) and sixty years of American adulthood including 42 years of lone lay investigation (enhanced with decades of diagnostic training and experience as an industrial electrician on mostly production shifts) into my own chronic illnesses, the primary cause of now epidemic ASD is probably estrogen-masked long-term chronic subclinical non-IgE-mediated food allergy reactions aggravated with officially (FDA in the US) approved added ‘cultured-free’ (can cross the blood brain barrier) MSG (since 1980 in the US) related elevated serum uric acid levels (asymptomatic gout), resulting in calcium (minimally; standard blood serum testing being unreliable due to blood pH regulation) deficiencies in expectant mothers and newborn babies. As with most industrial electrical devices, prevention is probably vastly superior to accepting dysfunction as normal, providing perpetual treatments and/or seeking costly cures indefinitely. It now makes me curious as to how much benefit mere improved nutrition might provide to all who are affected by ASD?

I love how anything it anyone different from you needs a cure so that you can feel better about being you.

Stop trying to “cure” us just because you can’t accept that some people are different. I’m sick of the eugenics.

This makes me really sad and conflicted. My son had what was called Asperger’s before. He was unique and amazing and I adored him. Crappy, ignorant people in our society didn’t, bullied him, and treated him terribly. He had trust issues as a result, depression, and passed away in a drug accident. If he’d been “treated” maybe he’d still be alive, but he wouldn’t have been the amazing man I loved & admired. Could you develop a treatment for what causes people to have such narrow definitions of “normal”? Could you treat bullying?

A cure would be amazing…. I hate living like this. I just want to be normal. I don’t know where all of you get off with this “we don’t need a cure” bs. I WANT ONE! I NEED ONE! My autism causes severe social anxiety to a point it is severely affecting my life. I hate my life. And no matter what I do I can’t fix the problems. It gets worse every day. I would gladly stop being “special” if I could have a conversation or go in public without massive anxiety, depressive, or panick attacks. You don’t speak for all of us.

As a mother of an 18 year old son with autism I read almost everything I can get my hands on. This article is one that I could have done without. It is clear that they are not trying to understand, rather, they are looking to omit. We have encountered multiple struggles with our son, however, he is a beautiful young man who I am blessed to be his mother. My world is a much better place with him in it and I would not change that for anything! Instead of trying to omit people with autism/spectrum disorders, maybe we should focus on how we approach people in general.

I think you might feel differently if your child’s autism manifested in ways that made it difficult for him to even go outside out of sheer terror of hearing a sound that might trigger him. For some people, the constant assault on their senses that comes with autism causes a serious detriment to their quality of life. If that’s not the case with your son, I’m genuinely happy for you. Please don’t disregard the suffering of others, though. This isn’t about acceptance. It’s about helping people who are suffering.

Thanks for seeking to cure my son of who he is. He doesn’t need to be cured but understood by ignorant neurotypicals who think they know best.

Hey, I’d just like to remind you that there is nothing inherently wrong with autism. It is not physically or psychologically harmful, it is just different from being neurological. The psychological damage comes from the rejection and mockery of autistic people’s differences. Your autistic children and loved ones are not miserable because they dislike eye contact or don’t communicate verbally. To them, that is a good life, far better than one in which they’re forced to act a certain way to please others. Please remember that the things the autistic community goes through are because of discrimination, not a “defect”.

@Josiah Please stop with the gaslighting! For a lot of people, their autism is extremely harmful to their quality of life. You don’t get to tell people that their experience of autism isn’t harmful. Many people are suffering. Do not disregard their suffering.

This is really messed up. Neuro-diverse people don’t need to be “cured” to fit for into the maladaptive societal mold. There are so many gifts of beyond on the spectrum and hyperfocused and sensitive. I’m very high functioning on the spectrum. I do not fit into society and never want to. Neurotypical neurosis is something that could use a cure though.

We don’t need to be cured

YOU don’t need to be cured. Please stop trying to speak for the entire autism community. Some people are suffering.

Those of you with autism who are condemning possible treatments for autism seem to be functionally quite well. You read the article, understood the complex neurological study, and wrote an opinionated post. What about the others with autism that do not function as highly as you obviously do? How can you speak for them and their caregivers? Wouldn’t you, being a part of the community, want others to have comparable abilities as you and the opportunities that come along with them? Before you label studies and their resulting potential treatments as “gross” or “shameful”, perhaps you should consider autistic persons other than yourself.

Well stated and, as a caregiver, you might be interested in what I posted above, especially the part about blood serum testing for calcium (minimally) being unreliable. However, using calcium carbonate (minimally) as a calcium supplement can cause a serious phosphorus deficiency (binds with and gets excreted; e.g., myself). Be careful and get help with that if needed.

Are you going to suggest miracle mineral water next? (look it up if you want)

I suggest Badoit if you can find it in North America. It won’t cure autism, but it’s very good mineral water. 🙂

Nuerotypicals – back at it with the eugenics war yet again. Christ you lot can be so f**king disgusting as a sentient echo-chamber, and also twice as st*pid. You’ve likely never spent more time with any autistic person other than through a clinical textbook lense; or you’ve specifically cherry picked your subjects for relevant stereotypes; are twisting representation of the truth for media business agendas (what else is new? Journalists continue to act soulless); or, as usual with any majority groups heading into awareness of a new and ‘threatening’ minority – your egos/worldviews/reptilian amygdalas are threatened and you’re striking the relatively undefended weak while still vulnerable. Could be a mix of all the above. For all the researched flaws of every other nuerotype, nuerotypicals sure blind to how f**king annoying and inconvenient their own flaws can be left unchecked to every other nuerotype on the planet. Primarily the incessant need to follow the social crowd like sheep, sacrificing a backbone and conforming with the status quo – going as far as to destroy anyone acting different even if they’re completely harmless – as long as it serves a purpose to fulfil you in the social ranks. God damn, you people have no f**king idea how vulnerable you are to group think influence until you stand on the other side in exhaustion watching people with otherwise perfectly humane hearts dehumanize and destroy another person psychologically because a puzzle piece toting hate group convinced them that these ‘victims’ are ‘monsters’ using nothing more than emotional appeal, fear mongering, and the implied support of nuerotypical social privilege and majority. If you’ve met one autistic person you’ve met one autistic person. If social awareness is a weak area, you can damn well bet that that person still has emotions, a psyche, a personality, a heart, a soul, whatever the hell you want to define it as. Even with the struggles in social skills an autistic person can definitely still care, feel, psychologically process, react in turn, grow, be hurt, be traumatised, develop PTSD and get really f**ked up by a majority nuerotypical population who they could strangely coexist and flourish aside a lot better if only they met them halfway, accepted nuerodiverse interactions a bit left field from the norm, and learned past the harmful stereotypes dominating the past couple decades. I don’t want to be altered to be nuerotypical, I want to think like me, it’s served well in it’s own way and truly the problems I have encountered came from people of nuerotypical privilege that project their worldview onto others as “the only way to be.” Question to think on: How does humanity hope to ever meet and encounter extraterrestrial life one day without repeating the mistakes of colonisation or invasion? You don’t even empathize with the differing nuerotypes alongside you on earth. The aliens are going to think differently. No living brain is flawless, we’re all biological structures evolving out of earlier evolutionary processes. The dynamics between a leftover, fearful lizard brain and a more recently evolving rational brain are not great set ups – being as it cripples the whole of humanity with a desperate need to master it’s darker impulse to dehumanize other fellow humans, enabling otherwise questionable actions and stances to be justified/weaponized against a ‘threatening’ new minority.

TL/DR: No brain is perfect, neither are nuerotypicals, despite the fact that majority privilege has meant that many nuerotypicals never had to analyse that level of awareness concerning their own situation. Check yourselves, because your dangerous ignorance is leading into eugenics – like every. Other. Minority vs majority. Struggle. In recent. History. That. No one. Learns. From. Ever.

I’m so f**king dead inside when I see this sh*t these days. I need a f**king drink. F**k the lack of paragraphs, much like detached medical opinions and irresponsible narratives f**ked the mental health of an entire nuerodiverse generation.

Autistic people have a limited range of interests? The horror! As an autistic person I find myself surrounded by so-called normal people who do nothing but sleep, work, pay bills, and watch TV while drinking beer.

Neurotypical people, stop trying to “fix” us and start fixing yourselves to be more tolerant and accepting.

As many of others have said (as well my self in other replies): We (I and anyone else who considers themselves in the same boat) want to be left the F alone, we don’t want a “cure” (if there is a “cure” that works for someone and they do it with informed consent I won’t stop them or complain as long they don’t try to become “religious zealots” about the “cure”), we don’t want to be “fixed”. We are happy just the way we are (again if someone wants to be a NT so bad they are willing try a “fix” I will not stop them).

Like anyone else I have some strengths and I have some weaknesses. Perhaps ASD makes these more spiky but that is part of my personality and would be in human to remove it this late in life (my mid 50’s).

Or how about maybe if the neurotypicals would stop traumatising us.

As an autistic woman I do not like the term disability. I don’t feel disabled. I have a higher IQ than most of the people around me and this is a fact not conjecture. I don’t appreciate neurotypicals thinking they can “fix us” when there’s nothing to be fixed. How about just be less of a douchebag and more inclusive and try understanding people where they’re at? Did neurotypical people ever stop to consider how strange they behave to us? I doubt it because they think there’s nothing wrong with them. That’s laughable. This is all just smoke in mirrors. I’ve had enough judgments in my life without some study to come along and continue to judge me. GTFOH!

I’m very disappointed in you for thinking that someone like me with autism needs a cure or treatment if other’s like me or that had similar unique ways of thinking on how our brain developed is such a problem then we would have come forward about it but we didn’t not all of us we need you guys nitpicking at our brain every the same as if we did it to you I’m not coming off as aggressive this is passive aggressive and now if you want a proper study and want to actually do something positive go directly to the people that actually have this ask them what they have trouble with on a daily basis don’t just be like oh this looks like fun let’s try to explore this to find out where it’ll lead and then push it on to others and make them feel belittled or like they should be a science experiment just for your own fun no this is not right in any measure or time of measurement I have autism but at least I can understand when something is wrong this should not have even been messed with or done with you all were just doing this as selfishness to the point of just trying to over justify the fact that you need to find a cure for some more treatment when everyone is supposed to be individual and unique if all of our brains function the exact same way they would be no individuality there be no creativity that we know thought process of higher intellectuality there would be nothing but boredom this needs to stop and I truly mean that I have a high IQ and I have autism but even I can function normally on a day-to-day basis I may not meet the requirements to get a job but I can still be an entrepreneur and sell food that I grow or do art and sell it to earn money in a way of living others like me don’t need this and I know it’s going to make so many upset just from this article it should be literally removed and deleted and burned it should never have been made to begin with this is how problems arise when people get too curious for their own good and think they’re doing a lot of good when they’re doing a lot of wrong this is how you imprison people make them into scientific slaves no one truly likes this and if you do then I’m sure for a doubt of a fact that your in on this with them.

i think there`s a difference between autism as it`s defined and diagnosed in the dsm 5 and icd-11, and the autism that many of the people in this thread are talking about. autism as it`s defined and diagnosed doesn`t include things like talking or toileting as part of the autism. those are comorbid or co-occurring things. they may be connected to a specific genetic disease that also causes the autism. or they may not. but most autistics, when they talk about not wanting a cure, aren`t talking about things like epilepsy, not talking or low iq because those things aren`t part of autism as it`s defined or diagnosed. most autistics are talking about the core parts of autism when they say they don`t want or need a cure. this isn`t about quirks, either. it`s about how autism has a number of aspects that many autistics like and would prefer to keep.

most people, and most autistics would agree that being able to speak or not have seizures or not need diapers is important. but those are all things that can easily happen even without being autistic. we need to be more clear about what it is we really want to see happen.

Note the above comment was made by someone else (not me). Likely due to a bug in the system and not their fault or mine (I am a software engineer and thus find this the most likely exlination). I do agree with all the comments made though (they are almost word for word ones my GF would make to me). So I am not complaining.

Found a major security hole in this site which explains this. Probably has to do with coding. Will explain offline.

Did you send it to me on gmail if so I never got it. But if your talking about non-password protected ID’s that is obvious but the comment was not mean or something I disagree so I say it is a pure and simple bug. If found something else let me know off line so we can decide who if anyone needs to be alerted to repair it.

Eugenics is alive and well. We don’t need a ‘cure’, we need people to start treating us like human beings.

This is disgusting. Autism is present at birth it dictates one’s entire neurobiology. We don’t need to be fixed or cured, being disabled isn’t bad. You all just want to make it so we’re more convenient for you/our care givers. Just call this an article in eugenics. I bet no autistic voices are being heard or even sought out by those conducting this research. We don’t want or need your “help” we want you to accept us and let us be who we are. Next you’re going to come up with research on treatments for not having light skin, perhaps?

Wow I don’t understand I’m trying to understand but I don’t I work in a school for children with multiple disabilities and anything that can help a child on the spectrum I think would be a huge breakthrough these kids struggle to express themselves and speak..I don’t understand why wouldn’t we want to do everything we can to help them

Did anyone ask them if they wanted “help”?

@Aryeh F Now you’re being silly. It’s not common practice to go around asking people with ANY type of disorder before researching treatment options. If you don’t want treatment, cool, but don’t disparage the people who are actively trying to improve people’s lives.

I am only “disparaging” people who are barking up trees that have already been looked by others and proven to not be a tree that a cat could get into.

There has been a long line of people who suggest nutritional “cures” not a single one of them has stood up to a simple double blind study.

oops wrong reply…. what I meant is what gives you the moral right to decide for someone else how to “help” them…. I think many Jews would owe a Hitler a thank you if that was that case…. so if it is wrong for a religious group what makes it right for something like a “disability”?

@Aryeh F who are you to say that they are barking up the wrong tree?!?! I’ll say it again… YOU ARE NOT THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE AUTISM COMMUNITY!!! You do not get to decide what treatment options are available to people who are suffering. This isn’t Naziism. If autism doesn’t affect your quality of live, cool! There are people are suffering. It is not your place to say that treatment options should not be pursued for people who can benefit from them.

As someone with lived experience and developing policies to improve inclusion for all individuals in my home province, I think the key takeaway for this research is the fact that medical science is able to provide amazing new information, and as a high-tech global world we need to embrace all individuals equitably and use information as education to creating a world with more understanding between people.

Be nice to use that money for accommodations in society for those on the Spectrum instead of trying to cure us.

I welcome this news with great joy! Finally something that will make a great difference!

Eugenics and the tyranny of the neuromajority. Just look at the culture of consumerism, commercialisation, and social malaise and tell me hand on heart that neurotypical norms are worth aspiring to. Oh, and read up on the Double Empathy Problem. It’s not us who need social skills training. It’s you.

I have an autistic nephew. He can’t speak, look you in the eye, or communicate meaningfully in any way. If his parents were to die suddenly, he would not be able to take care of himself. He is interested in watching the same movie repeatedly, or playing on his tablet. It is not a life. A cure is needed.

I completely agree with you. This sort of thing makes me so angry.

Cured??? I wouldn’t want to be ‘cured’. That would mean losing about forty IQ points. It would mean becoming insensitive and dull witted.

Why would I want to be a herd animal bleating away like the rest of the sheep? By cure, you mean essentially lobotomising us I guess.

Not only are you sterilising our kids, now you want to ‘cure’ us???

No. No. No. Leave us alone. Stop this attempt to exterminate us.

Autism isn’t a disease and it doesn’t need treatment. Instead of trying to treat autism we should be embracing differences and listening to minorities. Take it from someone who’s autistic themselves, there’s nothing more ableist, rude and annoying then ABA and supposed “treatment.”

I recently read that hyperbaric chambers were helpful for autism. That’s something that can be accessed right now albeit at a cost due to it most likely being off label.

To FBN, the headline isn’t misleading. It includes the term “within reach,” which is true.

To all those suggesting a cure for autism violates their right to not have a cure, or that it will lead to eugenics, as though you care about the quality of other people’s lives, your self-centered point of view doesn’t account for people who are not you. Why, in that case, should your opinion matter to anyone else?

To these, first, no one can force you to be treated. That’s your choice, just like everyone else. Second, what right do you have to say others should not have a choice? Third, being a spectrum, some autistics will likely be far more debilitated by the condition than you must be. Do you lack social empathy?

You have the right to keep your cancer, lung, heart and liver disease, broken legs, missing limbs, deafness and blindness. But others welcome new treatments and cures that promise longer, more productive lives. And this is only from the patient’s viewpoint. Scientists are the other side of the coin. They generally have a lifelong passion to know how things work in all of their intricacy. Your getting what you want would deprive many young people from being free to pursue their intellectual interests and passions to their fullest, and to contribute to or understanding of life, nature, and the universe overall.

Trust me it was the mmr shots that caused it, now they keep blaming everything from the flu to Tylenol that for sure didn’t cause it. I had 1 doctor admit it. When my granddaughter was 5 she had to get her chicken pox shot. I screamed at the doctor about the shots. She closed the door and said yes the mmr caused it but they took the preservatives out. I said its a lil to late now, the damage it caused. But no one will ever blame the pharmaceutical cuz of a big law suit. Go figure.

What a BS explination I was born before MMR’s where available and still have ASD please explain that if MMR’s are at fault.

@Jamesbaker Hi, I am on the fence about taking my son in the be tested for Autism. He is 5 in 2 months. I could list all the things he does..but that is not the point. The only thing they would do for him is the behavioral therapy. So I was wondering…if you went back to being a child…how would you like to be parented? I have tried everything I can think of, but maybe you can broaden my mind….please?

Sorry I meant @Jasoncline or anyone? I love my son so much. I just want him to be happy…

End this line of research, we don’t want it, we won’t have it, autism does not need a cure, it will never have a cure, we are not sick, we are not broken, we are human, we are alive, do not research us like lab rats, we are they way we are, accept it, and move on, spend money on social studies and training so we can be accepted into society, because like it or not, we are here to stay, in fact, I personally believe we are the next step in human evolution, so, stop trying to cure us, and accept reality, we are here to stay.

I don’t know who died and made you the spokesperson for the autism community, but for some people the constant stress and anxiety that comes with autism is a serious detriment to their quality of life. If that doesn’t include you, I’m genuinely glad for you, but to disparage those seeking a cure is to disregard the suffering of many people who are not at fortunate as you.

The worst part is when and if they are going to speak and also trying to control those horrible seizures.

My 5 year old has autism, I would love to cure him. The fear of when I die, and who will care for him is terrifying. I want him to be able to look after himself

I have 8 year-old twins who are autistic, non verbal,and I pray that God will bring healing and restoration. They don’t deserve to be the way they are. So any divine treatment will be well appreciated 🙏

Finding a solution to this spectrum shouldn’t be a problem for anyone. Let’s face the fact, the vast majority would embrace some kind of miracle to make them whole like every other individual. Being autistic sucks and that’s the reality. I have an immediate family who is going through this and im not excluded either. I hope the solution comes soon enough and those who don’t get it, should simply forget about it. Thanks for the research and hopefully, the solution is around the corner.

Listen, this approach is the problem. You want to help line the pockets of your funders to line your own pockets. Parents ,in most cases, need to quit treating their children like they have something wrong with them. Character is a good thing. Cruel peers make for a strong will to overcome stereotypes. The scientists working on this surely are socially lacking. Autism spectrum disorder only exists because folks want to choose how other folks should interact. It’s only classified because people classified them in a broad range of characteristics. It’s a diagnosis of lack of acceptance from peers. Like buck teeth.It’s hard to fit in when your physical or emotional traits go against the grain of what is “normal”. If your child can function, let them figure it out. Teach them to keep their chin up instead of hiding who they are.

Thank you for this research. Many with autism are disabled to the point they cannot communicate at all, and they want a cure. The people commenting otherwise are disenfranchising an entire group who cannot speak for themselves.

A cure is needed, at least for the most severely affected. If people with mild autism don’t want a cure, they don’t have to have it.

Severely disabled people with autism exist and they need help. Thanks to the research team and thanks Scitech for sharing this article!

Almost everyone even the non-verbal communicate in someway or an other you just need to learn how to “listen” to that communications. For example I didn’t talk til I was 4 and it was frustrating and I have a bad memories ABA style speech therapy being used to “force” me to talk.

So please get of your high horse and NT assumptions that talking/writing/etc. are the only forms of communication possible. And even if the person is non-verbal later in life they can always find other non-verbal ways to communicate (like writing).

So it is you who is totally disenfranchising a whole demographic by assuming spoken English is the *ONLY* way to communicate.

So not asking them if they “want” a “cure” is violation of basic human rights. It is ableist to assume you have any right all to make a decision for an other human being in anyway shape or form. This is called infintalizing in the adult autistic community and considered one of the highest forms of insult possible. Go read about it on various adult autism on-line forums like wrong planet or different on-line meetings that formed during Covid.

@Aryeh F You are being extremely dishonest claiming to speak to your own experiences while making statements like, “even if the person is non-verbal later in life they can always find other non- verbal ways to communicate (like writing).” You don’t know that and you are once again attempting to speak for an entire community. It is not abelist to make decisions for someone who is otherwise not able to communicate their wants/needs. There are legal processes that allow for that and there are certain situations where it is the only ethical thing to do. I wish you would consider how you are completely disregarding people who are suffering just because you don’t feel that YOU need a cure.

Please live my life and my experiences then tell me if I am generalizing in anyway. I spent 12 years in special ed so I know very well how the “system” looks at stuff and that is what I am referring to an the attitudes that lead to the system in the first place.

As to anything I say about personal experience that is just that personal experience but I can back it up by linking to article/post after article/post by others who have almost identical issues.

For example your assuming I (like some of the more radical posters here) am completely against such research, I am not and if good adaptations can be made for some the more annoying ASD treats that is wonderful, but saying you want to “cure” someone’s personality is a violation of basic human rights.

@Aryeh F. Taking YOUR lived experience and applying it to an entire community by saying, “WE” don’t need a cure is the very DEFINITION of generalizing. Also, where did you get the idea that anyone was attempting to cure someone’s personality? I LOVE my son’s personality. I DON’T love the fact that he can’t go outside or have the TV on without covering his ears out of constant dread of hearing some noise that might trigger him. His autism causes him to live live in CONSTANT anxiety. THAT’S what I want to cure. Now PLEASE tell me how that’s a human rights violation!!!

@darius You like making unreplable replies… Also from how inflexible your thinking is on this I wonder which one of is showing more stereotypical ASD behaviour me or you (i.e. fixation on a topic and refusual to change your opinion no matter what the “facts” are)… I will assume your not autistic since you have not said if you are or not… so this brings up the idea of double standards…. if I said I wanted to cure being NT I am sure I would get a huge backlash from successful NT’s also…

So do your self and stop alienating the very people your attempting to “help”

Also your earlier comment about autism being a disorder is also technically incorrect it is only a disorder in how autistics interface with a world that is not designed for our style of thinking there is nothing inherently wrong with that style of thinking (hell it helped me become a very successful software engineer with a lot of co-inventions if what later became the core of the modern Internet… like cloud computing and streaming media)

So, you’re just going to ignore what I said and again try to gaslight me, huh? I’m done attempting to converse with you you dishonest POS! Honestly, it’s not as if your opinion even matters. You think research is going to stop because of your selfish myopic,”I don’t need a cure, so NOBODY does,” BS? GTFOH.

@darrius you are the one putting words in peoples mouths not me. I never once said I would oppose someone trying such a “cure” I only said it was not for me (and anyone else who identifies with what I am saying). Two qualifications are needed here though 1) it has to the the actual person affected by what they want to “cure” and they need to have made the decision with full informed consent (*NO ONE* else can make the decision *FOR* them) and 2) They and/or their loved ones don’t be come religious zelots about the “miracle cure” they found that worked for them… ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL!

@darrius before you think stuff like co-existing sensory issues are all bad let me quote a part of a letter I wrote a few days ago to a potential client (they already know I have ASD due to how we met, via their GF who is in my support group… I ***DO NOT*** normally disclose I have ASD in business settings just so I can avoid @ssholes like you [your not as bad as some]):

In addition to my technical background, I also have some physical sensory sensitivities that make me unusually aware of various aspects of video quality, giving me a very sharp eye when debugging video streams:

1) Unusual visual sensitivity to motion: I need a higher-than-normal frame rate to be fooled into the continuous motion illusion. (The average person needs 12 fps whereas I need about 20 fps.) This makes me hypersensitive to flicker of all types, including variations in the rate of flicker. Thus I can easily see when frames are missing, and I can tell if the playback is truly at an even frame rate.

2) Color blindness, a condition with some compensating advantages in terms of the ability to see fine visual details. (See, for example: https://www.colorblindguide.com/post/the-advantage-of-being-colorblind .)

3) Auditory issues: I have super-sensitive hearing (I can hear people whispering a few rooms away) and I am also super sensitive to when my eyes and ears do not agree, e.g. badly-dubbed movies.

Thus I have a very keen eye regarding any hiccups in a video stream. It is even physically painful to me to watch a poorly streamed (for whatever reason) video.

For example, in 2020, early during the pandemic, I tried Zoom once and I had to turn it off after 30 seconds, because it gave me a pounding headache that lasted more than an hour (even with Advil). But what I observed in that 30 seconds shocked me. Zoom’s video quality issues include (or at least DID include; I haven’t looked again to see if they’ve improved since then): (1) filling blank/missing frames with black screens, (2) very random jittering/flickering of the stream, and (3) the default UI that assumes I want to watch everyone in the meeting (all with the same head-splitting glitches) all at once. (I know Zoom has an option to make it so you see only one person at a time, but that doesn’t solve the flicker/jitter and missing-frame issues.) Worse yet, I observed Zoom’s glitches via a good solid Internet connection (Spectrum cable, via a wired Ethernet connection to a desktop machine). I cannot bear to imagine how much worse they would be via a phone in a neighborhood with spotty coverage.

Given my own personal history of having successfully solved both the flicker/jitter and missing-frame issues way back in 1997, at much lower bandwidth and with much higher packet loss, I consider Zoom’s lack of video quality to be unforgivable.

Aryeh F, searching “autism and mineral water” proved to be inconclusive. On the other hand, while never diagnosed with ASD myself, the kind of allergy related calcium deficiency I referred to covers a large spectrum of disorders (e.g., dementia, depression, diabetes, gout, mass shootings, obesity, suicide, etc.) and has been ignored by still ‘dark-ages’ mainstream medicine since the early 1930s, at least. Furthermore, like the Covid-19 ‘scamdemic,’ it was illegally foisted on an unsuspecting American public by 1980 (primarily FDA approved added MSG) exacerbating the listed conditions and more, affecting and diminishing tens of millions of American (minimally; going/gone global with the western diet) lives for profit; medical and pseudo-food manufacturing. For me it now begs this question: “Are you a victim (like me) and/or a victor (like me)?” Ionic testing is said to be reliable for calcium and poor bone density is another reliable symptom of long-term added MSG poisoning. Be safe; be well; share, please, for the sake of all.

I specifically was refering to “miracle mineral water” not just mineral water (btw MMW is not minerals it is stuff like bleach and mercury and such)

I have asd and other disabilities and I find it hard to make sense of the world and what people are saying and doing and I have attachment problems with my family members too and bad at money skills and I have discan coulier with is dyslexic with numbers

Hopefully, this research will lead to something that will make your life easier despite all of folks who are butthurt over the idea of the research community trying to improve people’s lives simply because THEY don’t need it.

Attempting to change how someone feels and thinks, and effectively rebuild the personality is unlikely to work in context of a spectrum disorder with so many variable where each may be interrelated (e.g. improve one at the expense of the other). It also seems like push society in the direction of increasing intolerance, rather than trying to encourage harmony where individuality is accepted, and the mavericks differing from the norm are not ostracised, despised or persecuted. Assuming a ‘cure’ for someone diagnosed with autism was available, could the long-term negative impact be accurately assessed? Sir Isaac Newton would probably have received such a diagnosis. Would the world have been better if his likes and dislikes had been irrevocably changed? How many great scientists and mathematicians in the pipeline might end up lost to the world by such treatment? Leibniz and Newton developed differential calculus, leading to major advancements without which we wouldn’t have the modern world. A lot would depend on the age at which such treatment was implemented, but in today’s society with many children labelled autistic at an early age, and taken out of mainstream education, it seems highly likely! As the song Rotterdam goes: “And everyone is blonde And everyone is beautiful And when blondes and beautiful are multiple They become so dull and dutiful.” Surely mankind knows better than this!

My 2 young grandchildren are 6 years old with autism and 3 of them wear diapers, their parents do not have the economic power to have a house and they live in a small apartment and there are times when we do not even know how to control it because the medicine that the doctor gives them is very small and there is whole nights we can’t sleep he has a lot of problems at school because of all the viruses so please someone who can help us😭🙏♥️♥️

Any help for my daughter-in-law who is the mother of my 2 grandchildren with autism, how important is it because she is the one who suffers all my son is the only one who works, any help is very important to us

No guarantee but maybe some of my comments above about allergies, added MSG and calcium (minimally) deficiency could provide you with some help. Certainly, pure/safe foods and complete nutrition should help to improve any person’s mental health and well being, to some extent.

I have worked with the autistic population for over 30 years.if you have autism and are making anti social comments degrading this science and the fine scientists behind it claiming you don’t need help, then you have been locked into your own selfish world of high functioning autism.

The professional community has stopped using the terms high/low functioning because they imply value judgements about how much someone is worth by how well the “function”/”communicate” not what is in the heart or soul.

There is no such thing as high functioning autism. That is a label not a diagnosis.

Autism isn’t an illness, it doesn’t need treating or curing. It’s present from birth

I agree with most of these comments that autism doesn’t need to be full on cured. I have ADHD which can share a few symptoms with it and even has a higher chance of including autism (and vise versa) and I noticed “limited interests” being characterized as a negative but that’s the super power of both these disorders. It grants us the ability to become experts very quickly in our interests. And then (for autism) there’s being hyper analytical and hyper organized which is extremely useful in the workplace and allows for big picture thinking. There are many accompanying behaviors that need no changing, they define our personalities, identities and many of our strengths.

With that criticism out of the way however I fully support this research haha. If there could be a short term medication produced from these studies which could, like ADHD medications, eliminate the negative side effects of having this disorder, it would be a net good in my opinion. Overwhelm and meltdowns can be pretty intense, an inability to filter background noise and stimuli can not only be distracting but distressing. So having a medication that could allow a more comfortable performance when needed would probably help a lot of folks. Imagine a young parent of a baby, they would have the option of not getting overwhelmed from the loudness of the crying and might have a bit more stress control. Or if the overwhelm of school gets in the way of learning, perhaps within that environment a medication would be advantageous.

I’m beginning to believe that the real issue here is ‘clickbait’. The headline contains the phrase ‘breakthrough treatment for ASD’. This is a trigger for those of us on the spectrum who don’t want or need a cure and have been screaming at bullies and teachers and our kids’ bullies and teachers for decades for some accommodation.

If someone wants to help people on the spectrum, the best way to do so is to get to know the individual and accommodate the individual. Yes, the individual. If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met… One person with autism. We’re all different.

In my experience, the way to help us is to accommodate us. No ‘breakthrough treatment’ is necessary. If someone is nonverbal, there is tech available to enable them to communicate. If someone gets anxious in social situations, therapy can be helpful, as can noise-cancelling headphones and some forethought as to choice of venue.

It would be nice to have even a small fraction of the resources squandered on the Crusade for the Holy Grail ‘breakthrough treatment’ used toward accommodating me or my son or Aryeh and his gf or others I know or even Darius’ son and the children of the other people here who desperately need help. Maybe clean up the oceans and space junk before you start terraforming Mars?

Side note to authors: Please consider your choice of words in choosing a title for your article. Your quest for clickbait is triggering two subsets of the community and causing them to fight each other when they should be working together. Stop it.

I agree that the title is “clickbaitty”, but it’s not technically incorrect. Respectfully, though, it’s not always possible to just accommodate. we have done the best with therapy and he has made some progress, and his medication has done a lot to help with his anxiety. Unfortunately it also has implications on his quality of life . It has caused him to gain almost 200 lb, he is now pretty diabetic and will likely need medication for that as well, and while progress was made, he still does suffer.

I agree with the adage that adage that, “If you have met one person with autism you have met one person with autism.” That’s what makes it all the more infuriating when people who say they don’t need a cure take it as some sort of personal insult when research is done to help people who do need it. They are ONE person. They are not the entire autism community.

Sorry they put your son on psych meds with harmful side effects for something which is really not a psych condition. That said, I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist and I’m not in your shoes (other than being ‘one person with autism’ with an autistic son). I think there should have been a better way to address this, but in the end I can’t speak for you or him. In my son’s case, accommodation and alternative teaching methodology has made all the difference in the world.

FWIW if I get anxious from a social situation due to loud noise, I can choose to avoid this situation or wear earplugs or a noise-cancelling headset. I live my life, not the life someone else might consider ‘normal’. This comes with the territory of being autistic.

There are people here who are triggered by the prospect of being forced to be ‘normal’ because we have PTSD (and/or our children have it) from ABA ‘therapy’ (Pet Training Applied to Humans) and the like. We don’t want that kind of ‘help’ and we don’t want anyone else like us to be subjected to it ever again. I hope your son gets what he needs to build an independent life for himself.

@Archmage Arcane PLEASE…F***ING…STOP!!! You don’t get to tell me what my son’s condition is or isn’t. You seem like a nice, well-meaning person, but the period in your sentence should have been after the words, “I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist and I’m not in your shoes.”

I realize that there are people who are triggered by the prospect of being forced to be “normal.” I 100% agree with you that that is s***ty. What is also s***ty is the people in this comment section who are both diminishing the work of others who are trying to help people that are suffering just because THEY don’t need it while completely trivializing the lives of people who are ACTUALLY suffering. I appreciate that your anxiety can be alleviated by headphones and earplugs. My son’s cannot. Headphones and earplugs are bothersome to him. I also appreciate that accommodation and alternative teaching has made a difference for you and your son. That is also the case with me and my son, but it hasn’t alleviated his suffering. In our case, we had to make a choice between medication that had harmful side effects and something much much worse. We chose the lesser of two evils. If you or anyone else takes issue with that choice, frankly (and I can’t stress this enough) I don’t give a flying f***! I have been working for nearly 30 years to help my son have an independent life, but I have come to realize that is not a realistic goal. I have come to terms with it and accepted my son where he is at.

Please take the heart the words, “If you’ve met one person with autism you’ve met one person with autism.” Your experience is cool and all, but it has f***all to do with mine or my son’s experience.

@Archmage Arcane PLEASE…F***ING…STOP! You don’t get to tell me what my son’s condition is or isn’t. You seem to be a nice, well-meaning person, but the period in that sentence belonged after the words, “I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist and I’m not in your shoes.” I realize that there are people who are triggered by the prospect of being forced to be normal. I would 100% agree with you that that sucks. What also sucks is the people in this comment section taking a giant dump on the folks who are doing the work of helping people who are suffering Just because THEY don’t need it while simultaneously taking a giant dump on the people who DO need it and ARE suffering.

I appreciate that your anxiety can be ameliorated by wearing headphones or earplugs. That is not the case with my son as he finds headphones and earplugs bothersome. I also appreciate that accommodation and alternative teaching has made a difference for you and your son. That is also the case with me and my son, but that hasn’t stopped his suffering. In our case, we had to make a choice between medication with harmful side effects and something much, much worse. Is your or anyone else takes issue with that, frankly (and I can’t stress this enough), I don’t give give a flying f***.

I have been working for almost 30 years to help my son have an independent life. I have come to realize that despite my best efforts, that’s not going to happen. I have come to terms with it and accepted my son where he’s at.

Please try to take to heart the adage that “if you’ve met one person with autism you’ve met one person with autism.” Your experience is nice, and all, but it has f*** all to do with my son’s experience.

@darris So you would support any “cure” that “works”? does that include old fashion electroshock therapy? (which has been labeled as a crime against humanity by the UN Human Rights Commission) which is still practiced to this day is some school therapy settings like the Judge Rothenberg Center https://www.judgerc.org/ which has been the center of about 10 different law suits for using stuff like electroshock. An other example is a school in Illionese that I forget the name of but was in the national news a few days ago for having cops there almost everyday to arrest “disruptive ASD” students.

That is the kind of thing people are talking about when we say we don’t want to be “cured” and frankly the big research efforts have not moved beyond that thinking because they never ask anyone of the spectrum how to design these studies or what they should be studying

For the record, this is what being a dishonest doυchebag looks like. No, I do not support shock therapy, you dishonest POS! 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

To the Lady MJ Who has twin 14 year old boys. My Daughter has a 14 year old son who has Autism. I wish there was a cure ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

I am autistic and I have a first class honours degree. Does that make me valid? I am human and if everyone gets in a flap about a cure for autism, remember folks it is only the rich people who will have access to the cure for their kids. Ordinary people who are already adults will not be deemed worthy! After all economic prejudice cuts across all of this. So no one can cure you of being you! There is no cure for who we choose to be. And autistic people generally are of higher intellect than the rest of the population. Women are diagnosed later after passing off as neuro-typical most of their lives. I know how to look like you, I just don’t think like you (non autistic people). If you are trying to cure anything it is your own sense of frustration in the face of people who cannot be socially persuaded, or bribed, or made to act like you. Claiming a cure is at best silly, at worst a waste of time… But that’s what some people what to spend their time doing.

Yes, Anne. I know how to look and act like them as well. I got an advanced degree despite debilitating executive function issues. I needed literally a genius-level IQ to compete with NTs of normal intelligence due to lack of accommodation.

‘Passing as normal’ is something most of us can do after enough practice (think decades), but it’s very draining and can lead to shutdown/burnout. There are relatively minor accommodations (compared to wheelchair ramps and autimatic doors and the like for people in wheelchairs) which would make life easier for many of us and simply possible for others.

So true. One has to be super smart to survive in a world of complete sensory and functioning chaos. Well done for your academic brilliance!!

From knowing you in real life I still think you would make the PERFECT contestant on Jeopardy!

I wonder how many of you are really bothered about anyone but themselves? If you kid is having problems with loud noises, buy him a pair of headphones. If your child can’t cope try spending less time in the internet wingeing about how terrible it is to have an autistic child. And spend time being a better parent.

F*** you, and f*** you judgemental BS. We are doing the best we can with what we have. If you weren’t so wrapped up in yourself, maybe you would quit being so butthurt over the research done trying to improve other people’s lives just because you don’t feel that YOU will benefit from it. Kindly, f*** off with that BS!

@anne is right a little bit of common sense goes a long ways for example I not only discovered I love what is now called Classic Rock back in the 80’s but having it on was one the best ways to shut out the outside world and not be bugged by so stupidities as someone arguing a block away. The longer I listen to the same songs (not on infinite repeat but on infinite loop through about 1500 of them) the easier it is for me to focus on the outside world since the music blocks out all the distractions.

It is experiences like this that leads honest researchers (not the ones looking to be “rock stars” by finding a “cure”) to come up with ideas like using white, pink and brown (brown being stuff like my love of classic rock) noise generators and the use of headphones to lessen the sensory onslaught of the real world.

Alot of progress has been made in the last 20 or 30 years with such adaptive tech. Alot of it invented by people on the spectrum themselves.

Cool. You both can go f*** yourselves. I have zero interest in either of your opinions. Your butthurt isn’t going to have the slightest impact on the research community, so your opinion is irrelevant anyway.

Your level of ignorance and complete lack of empathy is outstanding.

As your apparent level of intolerance for anyone who does not agree with your world view. How amazing narrow minded and NT! (I am purposely stereotyping here so you can see what s*** people on the spectrum have to put up with almost everyday).

As your apparent level of intolerance for anyone who does not agree with your world view. How amazing narrow minded and NT! (I am purposely stereotyping here so you can see what BS people on the spectrum have to put up with almost everyday).

… and f*** you too, you lying, dishonest, POS!

@Darrius a serious piece of advice (me an Archmage discussed privately and we both agree on it) you might want to look into if your on the spectrum or not because your reactions to anyone who disagrees with you are so amazingly stereotypical.

Also if you care so much about being honest why not list all the exact areas where you feel I am being dishonest instead of just dimissing me (like you are likely doing to your son also) because I do not agree with you and I happen to ASD and not an NT (and thus some how damaged and incapable of any coherant statement on anything).

How many different ways can I say this? GO…FυCK…YOURSELF!!! I have zero interest in your completely uninformed armchair diagnosis of me and even less interest in what you think of my relationship with my son. I have neither the time, nor the inclination to go back through our conversations and list all the ways you have been a dishonest interlocutor and a complete doυchebag! I don’t give a f*** what stereotypes you think I’m living up to, and you have made it clear that you don’t give a f*** about people whose quality of life could be made better through scientific research, so I no longer give a f*** about you. F*** you very much, and have a nice day!

You are free to do what ever you want but don’t claim it is the only or the right way! As to your son who knows what he actually thinks because you refuse to let him “talk” even when he “wants” to… As I proved above I have the same damn issues with TV he does but I learned how to make them a positive not a negative you are

@Aryeh F. Thank you for once again revealing yourself to be the dishonest doυchebag that you are. I never came remotely close to claiming that my way was the only way. You have no f***ing clue what I refuse to let my son do or what he wants. Pretending to know other people’s lives better than they do is classic gaslighting. F*** you very much. 🖕

I should be more careful about what nerves I hit next time then… but honestly parents like you are the ones who need the help to accept something that they can’t change not the other way around… For example you didn’t say what triggers your sons meltdowns? So why not actually try to get him to explain what happened and doing nothing but that will likely make them less severe and frequent…. the truth is most ASD meltdowns are due to who ever we are dealing with just simply refuses to be the least bit accommodating and explain things in a way we can understand

No, I never said anything about triggering any meltdowns. I never even mentioned the word. What I said was that it causes him stress and anxiety. And thank you for telling me what I need help with, without even having bothered to pay attention to what the f*** I said, you absolute tool. You have absolutely no clue what I have and have not accepted, and you have also have no clue what conversations we’ve had over the past 30 years. But thank you for once again attempting telling me all about my lived experience as if you have a slightest idea what you’re talking about and showing what a gaslighting doυcebag you are!

… if humankind would put more effort together toward things like this, we would be way better of now, but just because covid 19 proved the real state of human mind… we are where we are, now…

Maybe we need to look at vaccines. Now 1 in 54 kids have autism. I suggest RFK jr website childrenshealthdefense. org for real science and Dr Peter McCullough for current jab “problems”.

Let’s not resurrect long debunked fringe nonsense, please! Autism rates have “gone up” simply because our ability to diagnose has improved. It has nothing to do with vaccines. Science is a process by which are best understanding of reality arrives through results being verified and a building scientific consensus. Just because one scientist publishes something that comports with your preconceived bias, that doesn’t make it “real science.”

Have obesity rates “gone up” due only to improved diagnosis? I don’t presently recall if I personally wrote Dr. McCullough but I do recall writing JFK Jr’s website about allergies, FDA approved food poisoning and possible nutritional deficiencies, albeit in-vain. Some of my findings are unique to me so I try to inform those with incomplete higher educations of my lay findings but, regrettably, they are too highly educated to learn from a mere former industrial electrician with only 42 years, now, of dealing with his own externally imposed allergy related chronic illnesses. And, while $Trillions have been spent on a phony Covid-19 pandemic, as a lone lay victim, investigator, experimenter and discoverer I’ve never been eligible for any research grant I’ve ever investigated. So, please, don’t be so quick to dismiss the possibility of autism, like obesity, being illegally foisted on those who are unfortunately naturally susceptible to such things.

@Charles G. Shaver No, obesity rates have not gone up because of our ability to diagnose. Are you capable of having an honest conversation, or are you just going to respond with ridiculous strawman arguments? You haven’t been given a research grant because you are a self-admitted laymen with zero expertise. It’s for that reason I will dismiss your opinion in favor of those who actually know what the f*** they are talking about.

Darius, by the time I became mysteriously, seriously ill for the second time, in 1981, I was already a journeyman industrial electrician for a decade and a community college drop-out for seven years. Too ill and broke to continue my college education, immediately, following a failed thorough medical examination in mid-1981 I simply embraced the challenge of solving the problem myself and, therefore, some of my at-home discoveries are unique to me, not anything you’ll find in any medical texts, yet. At 79 years of age I’m still battling FDA approved food poisoning but again prescription drug free. I’m not the ignorant savage you suggest I am. Quite the opposite, I’ve unsuccessfully tried to share my successful lay findings and practices with thousands of more authoritative, qualified and/or resourceful professional others, beginning with the FDA (with replies) in October of 2005 about obesity; obviously, now, in-vain. Many more highly educated, successful younger others (e.g., the Commissioner of the FDA in 1980, when the expanded use of added MSG was approved, and the global health expert Dr. Paul Farmer, quite recently) have already died as I live on. Mainstream medicine is still so ‘dark-ages.’ Look them up; more upon fair request.

@Aryeh F. I didn’t suggest that either. Are you completely incapable of stringing words together to form a sentence that ISN’T dishonest to its core, you utter tool?

I never suggested that you are an ignorant savage, so I guess that answers the question about whether you are able to have an honest conversation.

No you just suggested that you do not agree that “that all men [sic] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Where you disagree is when you deny that people with ASD (not matter how “mild” or how “severe”) have any capacity for freedom or happiness and thus must be “cured”.

Note all people being equal does not mean we are all identical, far from it, and I mightiest well let my nerd flag a little and say I live my life by the Vulcan slogan IDIC — Infinity Diversity in Infinite Combinations … this means while we are all unique and special because of that uniqueness we are also all still human and therefor if we are Americans (since everyone here is using perfect American English I will assume we are all Americans) we are by the very fact of being a human being have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (how ever we may define those terms due to our right to the Freedom of Expression by the 1st Amendment). Look at the world as a salad bowl not as a melting pot and you will see the variety makes us richer not poorer.

I didn’t suggest that either. Are you completely incapable of stringing words together into a sentence that isn’t COMPLETELY dishonest, you utter diρs***?

@Aryeh F. I never suggested that either you, tool, but thanks for demonstrating once again that you are incapable of stringing a sentence together that isn’t completely dishonest!

To the typical democratic replies “what’s wrong with having it.. bla bla bla…” Tell that to a child who cannot speak, so you think it’s fair that they cannot speak in order to not offend others who have autism??????? I love how you don’t even have autism and I’m betting don’t even have a child who does because as a parent WITH autism having a child WITH autism we would greatly like to see where this research leads… my son wants to talk if OK with your hurt feelings.

Buy your son a communication board, for now? If I had my way, he would be given one free of charge.

One of the highest compliments I was ever paid was back in the early 2000’s when I was in a double blind study to see if Prozac helps ASD (turns out it doesn’t but it does help the often co-occuring depression… who wouldn’t be depressed with all the BS we have to put up with from NT’s on top seeing the world differently… thus I have continued to take it despite it not “helping” my core ASD because it does wonders for my depression)… As I was waiting to do my bi-weekly interview by one of the researchers I ran into a parent of a 12 year old on the spectrum. After talking for a few minutes the parent was amazed saying they have never seen their son open up like to anyone (period)… I told them I had no idea what I did special except also being on the spectrum and went along with my day.

Aryeh: FWIW I was on track to ve a teacher. Wanted to teach languages, but might well have gravitated toward special ed. I was ruthlessly weeded out by an old lady who was supposed to be my mentor because I reminded her of kids she was actively making fall through the cracks. Kids on the spectrum, before the diagnosis was common (1980s). This caused me to burn out, so I switched to library science. Adults on the spectrum suffer horribly from lack of accommodation.

Same kind of thing for me when I went back to school in my late 20’s it was to get a degree in computer science education (how to teach CS) after being disillusioned by the commercial software world. Then the dept head directed a fellow student my direction who had a business idea and you know the rest of the story.

this is eugenics but also i’m skeptical of these conclusions drawn because the data has been cherry-picked in the past with studies like this. the age-old one about trans people being supposedly detectable based on brain matter comes to mind… people like to give answers to get attention, funding, etc. etc.

For those who are offended and feel there should be no cure for those who want it for better outcomes in life, it is very likely that your autism or your loved one’s autism is mild, meaning you can write the abuse on here against the research and any research into treatment smh. You completely fail to consider or understand that not everyone autistic person has mild symptoms. Believe you me if you ask a severely affected person or their family, you might find some of them (not all) would like some help to get to some level of independence. To be able to read and write like you, to be able to express their needs and fears including reporting abuse. Just because you can and are happy with your experiences DOES NOT give you the right to speak for all autistic people and their families because you don’t know the half of it. Remember no autistic person is like the other. It’s a spectrum so being on the high functioning side does not give you the right to impede on potentially beneficial research! #CARRYONWITHTHERESEARCH

For Darrius and all the other parents who are convienced they know better then their ASD kids (note I think the orginal movie was great for it’s time but is very much harmful in the modern world as a model for ASD) [except in my case replace Pinball with Computers and the Internet ;-)]

Welcome to the Camp I guess you all know why we’re here My name is Tommy and I became aware this year

If you want to follow me You’ve got to play pinball And put in your earplugs Put on your eyeshades You know where to put the cork

Hey you getting drunk, so sorry I’ve got you sussed Hey you smoking Mother Nature This is a bust Hey hung up old Mr. Normal Don’t try to gain my trust ‘Cause you ain’t gonna follow me any of those ways Although you think you must

We’re not gonna take it We’re not gonna take it We’re not gonna take it We’re not gonna take it

We’re not gonna take it Never did and never will We’re not gonna take it Gonna break it Gonna shake it Let’s forget it better still

Now you can’t hear me Your ears are truly sealed You can’t speak either Your mouth is filled You can’t see nothing And pinball completes the scene Here comes Uncle Ernie to guide you to Your very own machine

We’re not gonna take it Never did and never will Don’t want no religion And as far as we can tell We ain’t gonna take you Never did and never will We’re not gonna take you We forsake you Gonna rape you Let’s forget you better still

We forsake you Gonna rape you Let’s forget you better still

See me, feel me, touch me, heal me See me, feel me, touch me, heal me See me, feel me, touch me, heal me See me, feel me, touch me, heal me

Listening to you, I get the music Gazing at you, I get the heat Following you, I climb the mountain I get excitement at your feet

Right behind you, I see the millions On you, I see the glory From you, I get opinions From you, I get the story

F*** you very much, you POS! 🖕🖕🖕

Are 4 letter words the only ones you know? I guess I will give up deciding who the more “mature” person at this table is

I know quite a few words that are longer than four letters, dips***! And f*** you for trying to tone police me. 🖕

I should of posted this song instead since it explains what many autstics have deal with when faced with @ssholes like you:

I am Iron Man Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Can he walk at all Or if he moves, will he fall? Is he alive or dead? Has he thoughts within his head? We’ll just pass him there Why should we even care? He was turned to steel In the great magnetic field When he traveled time For the future of mankind Nobody wants him He just stares at the world Planning his vengeance That he will soon unfurl Now the time is here For Iron Man to spread fear Vengeance from the grave Kills the people he once saved Nobody wants him They just turn their heads Nobody helps him Now he has his revenge Heavy boots of lead Fills his victims full of dread Running as fast as they can Iron Man lives again

Dedicated with all my heart to Aryeh F.

Were you born an a**hole, or did you work it at your whole life?

Well I was driving down I-95 the other night, When somebody nearly cut me right off the road. I decided it wasn’t going to do any good to get mad, So I wrote a song about him instead. It goes like this…

Were you bo-rn an a**hole, or did you work at it your whole life? Either way it worked out fine, ’cause you’re an a**-hole tonight.

Yes you’re an A-SSHOLE, and don’t you try to blame it on me, You deserve all the credit, you’re an a**hole tonight.

You were an a**ho-le yesterday, you’re an a**-hole tonight, And I’ve got a feeling, you’ll be an a**hole the rest of your life.

And I was talking to your mother, just the other night, I told her I thought you were an a**hole, she said “yes, I think you’re right”.

And a-ll your friends are a**holes, ’cause you’ve known them your whole life, And somebo-dy told me, you’ve got an a**hole for a wife.

This article is incredibly abilist and abusive towards us asd folks. How about allistics stop being abusive garbage instead? Our “social deficiet” is us not conomying with abuse structures in yt supremecy, abilism, misogyny, and homophobia. Instead of eugenics you could try supporting our needs and stop using abuse as “therapy”. Try meeting our needs instead of treating us like we’re the problem. If my needs had been met as a child I wouldn’t have had so many “behavior” issues, as an adult I constantly have to advocate for myself and its not asking a lot, yet allistics view us as less than and it’s beyond vile and abilst.

It would be nice if they had up votes (and down votes) on this site I would give you a infinite number of up votes for the above.

there is no “treatment” for asd “for me specifically aspergers” and its not a disorder. its from birth and we already know the most prevalent causes, one of which is receiving too much testosterone in the womb. for low functioning forms of autism the best we can do is give them alternative means of communication and patience.

It fine to embrace yourself but my autistic granson cries and hits himself in the head and attacks others , is non verbal and miserable! Its a spectum disorder and he needs a cure.. you may not!

Hello people. I hope you all had a good Christmas. But I do believe that some of you were on the naughty list this year. It is really illuminating to see so much of the diversity of the human condition expressed on the internet. It really helps me appreciate a good book a lot more. So thank you for demonstrating why cats are better company than people. Happy new year dearies.

Agreed! Not only is being completely indifferent to people’s suffering, judging parents when you know absolutely nothing about them or their relationships with their children, and taking a giant dump on people who are working to make the lives of others better a bit naughty, it is also the height of doυchebaggery. Happy New Year, doυche! I’m sorry that your poor cat has to suffer your doυchiness!

Will scritch my rabbit’s ears and my friend’s 3 cats for you. They’re very good company. Have a great new year!

Cool! At least you can’t gaslight them.

… idk, maybe one of the cats has a kitten that you’ve never met (or even heard of prior to today) and you can try to convince the cat that you know more about its kitten than they do.

Please prove you know how to do something other than be a transparent troll…. troll’s don’t make for cute and cuddle pets and that what every NT parent really wants a cute of cuddle pet.

Please prove that you are not an insufferable doυchebag who could actually give two f***s about something that might help people who are suffering even if you don’t benefit from it.

…and maybe not be completely dishonest in the process!

@darrius At this point no comment is needed for an objective reader to know which one of us is the real @sshole. Thus I will not even attempt to correct your perceptions of me and others on the spectrum (something that is apparently impossible)

@Aryeh F. of course you don’t need to comment about me… yet you can continue to do so. Thank you for demonstrating (yet again) what a dishonest douchebag you are!

What an apallingly written article. Terrible journalism. Non factual, biased, mis-representative. The autistic SPECTRUM is a developmental DIFFERENCE rhat sometimes manifests with disability. It’s a different skillset, with different strengths and weaknesses.

Sadly to many people with loved ones on the spectrum that aren’t on the spectrum themselves will not see it this way. Mostly because they can’t get over the fact that their kid is not cute and cuddly like NT kids should be and looking for someone or something to blame (in in there case that seems to be anyone on the spectrum that has found a there own “voice”).

Equally sad is that some douchebags will pass judgment on parents that they don’t know, have never met, and could have no possible way of knowing anything whatsoever about their relationship with their children who are on the spectrum.

Your own statements have spoken for themselves I need not put any words in your mouth.

Darius, final comments from me: okay, you only implied I’m an ignorant savage, I apologize. The fact of the matter is that by the time I became mysteriously, seriously ill in 1981 I had sufficient higher education and training and diagnostic experience as an electrical troubleshooter to put a research group together if I had the funding. In 2011 I wrote the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and The Lancet of my early lay findings of calcium deficiency related illnesses (e.g., bad moods, fatigue and short-term memory problems, minimally) and of the unreliability of standard blood serum testing for calcium. I estimate about fifteen million American lives could have been extended (and can only guess how many ASD persons may have been affected one way or another) by now if my submissions hadn’t been rejected for it being only ‘a one subject study,’ as if it didn’t/wouldn’t apply to many others. I suspect you too-typically have a medically undiagnosed calcium deficiency and suggest (not prescribe), if available to you, get ionic and/or bone density testing for calcium, minimally. If calcium supplements are indicated-for, avoid long-term calcium carbonate; can cause a very serious phosphorus deficiency. And, because there is a natural ratio of calcium to magnesium (‘natural tranquilizers’), it probably would be wise to maintain that. I don’t get paid for trying to help others I just know I have rare/unique information and insights to share as a decent human being and a dutiful American. For a few more details, if so desired and you can locate them, I’ve uploaded a one-page overview of my lay findings to the “About” page of my non-economic Odysee dot com/@charlesgshaver video channel. Best regards, and wishes for a great new year of improved health and the sharing of “how?” if it applies.

@Charles G. Shaver thanks, but if your research methods are as sloppy as your interpretation of my comment that apparently somehow implied that you are an ignorant savage, it’s a hard pass for me.

As usual, a posse of high functioning autistic (and probably several “self-diagnosed” autistic) people have descended here to speak for the entire community of people with autism. Any treatments coming from research like this will surely be optional and you are free to stay autistic for as long as you would like. For those who actually would like to find new treatments, are you their spokesperson?

High/low functioning are NT designations not ones that many in the ASD community (professionals or people on the spectrum), btw I am level 2 and thus likely would not meet the outdated definition of “high functioning”. What we take issue is not the idea of a “cure” if it works for you good just don’t ram it down our throats.

By ram it down our throats you never once stop to ask *US* our opinion before doing this research because after all we are deaf, blind, and stupid and thus unable to make basic decisions about our own lives. This is a violation of human rights and is deeply un-American.

@Ryan A actually yes. In case you are not aware, @Aryeh F. is in fact the official spokesperson for the autism community. Aryeh F. must be consulted before pursuing any research or treatment options… because that’s how research works. Additionally, Aryeh F. is the official parenting coach for all parents of children on the spectrum due to their demonstrated expertise on diagnosing parenting issues of people they have never met.

I like how your attempting to crown me something I never claimed to be. All I said is if people identify with me good if they don’t oh well.

@Aryeh F. Of course that’s all you said… And then you proceeded to compare people who don’t identify with you to Hitler. Seriously, were you born an a**hole or did you work it at your whole life?

… and an absolutely no way did you judge my parenting or pretend to know things about me and my relationship with my child that you couldn’t possibly know. Not only are you an a**hole, you are a f***ing liar!

I sure hope your taking out your 30 years of rage at ASD on me and not your son.

Because your getting more and more unglued by the post.

@Aryeh F. I’m beginning to suspect that you have very little experience with people calling you out on your bullshιt. What you experience as “30 years of rage,” is actually nothing more than somebody confronting you with the truth (which you have yet to challenge me on). “Rage” and all, am I wrong about you being a liar? As unglued as you think I am, please tell me where a single thing I said is wrong.

… and by the way, it’s called “sarcasm,” dipshιt!

[crickets]… Yep, that’s exactly what I thought. You judge my parenting based on absolutely nothing, you are a completely dishonest interlocutor and an outright liar, and when I call you out on it, “Oh my god… The rage! He’s so unglued!” GO F*** YOURSELF, DOUCHEBAG!

Crickets due to my work being done here… I am worried if you get any more unglued you will end in the psych ward and be no help to your son at all… thus it will be crickets from now on from me re: you.

@Aryeh F. So, I challenged you to point out where I’m wrong, and instead you AGAIN deflect to my being rageful and unglued. Thank you for tacitly acknowledging that you are a liar and a douchebag by deflecting every time you’re called out on it.

crick, crick, crick… snoore

… and then flip the table.

I can see that some people are going to be unreachable. I’m seeing a pattern here: When we present our life experiences, which are different from yours and at least in our individual cases invalidate what you’re saying, we’re gaslighting. Then you get angry and start insulting us. And it gets worse and worse. And then we rage about gaslighting rabbits and cats (pets are great de-stressors) for autistic people…

I’m done here. I’ve said my piece.

OK, ça fait tout. C’est fini.

À bientôt…

Cool! Goodbye, douche!

I, for one, would be extremely glad if there is a “cure”. My 5 year has severe ASD and it’s heartbreaking to see him suffer. When I say suffer I don’t mean him not eating properly, not responding to potty training and shoving hands in to the diaper and taking out what he just made and smearing on his face, not being able to communicate his thoughts and feelings and so on. None of these account for suffering in my books. It’s the fact that he has to take 4 different meds everyday to keep him functional and when the dosage becomes too small for him, his shrieking, screaming and crying. His constant digestion problems. I am glad that a lot of you people with ASD in the comments are able to use the devices, read the articles and curse the researchers in the comments and I would’ve given anything in the world for my son to be like you guys and not to dread the time when he grows up and is still non verbal and all of the other “fun stuff”.

I was not totally potty trained until I was 8 or so (got out of diapers around 6 or so I think)…. even to this day I have an unfortunate “accident” once or twice a year… I think I did just as interesting stuff with my sh*t (maybe that why I am so go at steering it up as an adult in others it seems). Even now I have severe IBS many times (I must be one the people who keeps the laxative companies and Immodem in business).

What I am saying is just because he is like that 5 (I think was likely worse) doesn’t mean he will always be like that. That’s where finding solutions for the individual issues/problems and not looking for a big bang cure comes in really *DOES HELP* but wasting money on such big bang cures your cutting funding to stuff that actual does help.

I will also add that the study this article cites makes the assumption that ASD is a one size fits all “disorder”.

As my GF (who is also on the spectrum) privately said about this study (posted with permission):

I don’t think it’s at all likely that they’ve discovered anything anywhere near as significant as they claim. These experiments are being done on a “mouse model” — of what, exactly? There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different kinds of autism. A one-size-fits-all “mouse model,” much less a one-size-fits-all “cure,” is highly unlikely.

Scientists have been experimenting with “mouse models of autism” for decades. Never gets very far, but both the government and billionaire parents of autistic kids continue to be willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, stories like this tend to convince parents that a total “cure” is just around the corner. These parents, in turn, become extremely hostile toward autistic self-advocates.

Oh I also forgot the pure joy of 15 years ABA-style speech therapy to first force me to “talk” and then “talk right” (any bad english here can likely be traced to this btw)

It’s all about helping people who are suffering. My son is severely speech impaired and has extremely limited social skills. None of that seriously impacts his quality of life and if he never progresses in those areas of be okay with that. What does cause him suffering is his extreme sensitivity to sound. Some self-appointed parenting gurus will suggest simple solutions like earplugs, headphones, and certain avoiding places (as if we’ve just been sitting here with our thumbs up our butts not trying that). They also suggest these “simple solutions” render this research unnecessary as if they get to make that decision. I too am glad that some on the spectrum are not suffering as my son is. Many on the spectrum are not so fortunate as they are.

@darrius you just have not been reading any of the life experiences anyone on the spectrum has relayed at all… for example if you read I showed point by point I have the same sensory sensitivities as your son and gave you some ideas on how to work on them… you rejected all them because they came from a fellow person on the spectrum and not some professional or high cost researcher

Hint on my sensory issues I am triggered by things not even other people with the same sensory sensitives that I have get. For example I am extremely triggered by CFG light bulb’s (to the point of needing non-otc headache medicine for it) due to their 60 Hz flicker.

Now back to cricket mode… snore

@Faridun see what I mean? The sheer level of douchebaggery knows absolutely no limits.

@Aryeh F. Tell you what, douchebag. I’m all for medical consent, but in your case, if it’s your autism that’s manifesting in your being an absolute douche, I hope you are cured. I hope you are strapped to a gurney, gagged, kicking and screaming, and forcefully injected with anti-douche serum. I know… I know… “Hitler”… “Nazi”… Blah blah blah. F*CK OFF!!!

… and the next time you present your OWN life experiences, maybe try not telling other people what their experiences are who you have never met, what their children’s experiences are who you have also never met, what their relationships with their children that you have absolutely zero experience with are like? Maybe then you will come across as left of an insufferable douchebag!

In other words, when telling YOUR OWN life experience, STICK TO YOUR OWN F***ING LIFE EXPERIENCE! M’Kay,douche?

No you are worse then a Nazi your the Jewish parent that thanks the Nazi’s for “curing” their kid by BBQ’ing them.

Yep! Nailed it! That’s absolutely 100% me!

Your clairvoyance on people you’ve never met is mind-blowing. Tell me… What color am I thinking?

It’s weird people “feeling offended” by a research saying the OBVIOUS, sorry unfortunately a person who’s got autism isn’t mentally health as you want to believe, my brother was an autistic guy from the beginning till his death and I can say that an autistic person isn’t a normal healty person and YES needs professional help.

Heil Hitler!

I have three grandbabies they have autism when it’s 2 1/2 the other two or one and a half and they are nonverbal Though I love them dearly just the way they are. I wish my grandkids could have a better life a more normal life. Have close friends , the boys could foot play ball. Jalaya could be a ballet dancer. But they will probably never be to do that. Because of their autism. They are all level three and go through so much misery. Not being able to talk to us when somethings wrong kills me. Not being able to express emotion. Or just play together like normal brothers and sister. And my seven year old grandchild suffers to from her parents not being able to spend time with her because all the time goes to the three babies you never her. and she has ADHD and ADD and wants so much attention that she can never get. and my heart is broken to see that.

Brace yourself for a dose of parenting shame from @Aryeh F. based on zero knowledge of you or your relationship with your child which, if you don’t accept, obviously makes you a Nazi.

Nonsense, autism is a “gift”! You should be happy with them as they are because they are amazing miracle babies. It doesn’t matter if they smear s&*t everywhere, still haven’t master basic life skills by teenage years, and prevent you from being able to enjoy any family time together because they meltdown due to every little thing that happens externally. Society is the problem, not autism! They’re so cute and quirky.

The depression and massive anxiety experienced by autistic people is largely because non-autistics are either forcing us to behave in unnatural ways, judging us because we’re different, attributing negative traits to us whilst exhibiting them themselves (the double empathy problem. We feel empathy but express it differently. NT’s wrongly claim we don’t have empathy because they are unable or unwilling to empathize with, or understand our differences)

In my experience NT people are generally dishonest and highly manipulative, choosing to hint and insinuate rather than state a need or intention. Why don’t you all start figuring out how to erase those disordered, faulty individuals from our species?

I think the opportunity of being well and having a better quality of life is essential but if you don’t want that then that’s your choice but I know my grandson and his siblings would go to the end of the world for treatment as he is so disabled that affects all of their lives it’s heartbreaking. So don’t jump down someone’s throat who can help if help is wanted. Bring on the cures and embrace science

At the cost of not founding less “sexy” research that acually has a larger impact *NOW* not in the *FUTURE*?

Was this article written by a f***ing A.I.? Nonsensical AND ableist? Smh my head, y’all NTs needa chill tf out

So much arguing here. The most important thing is What does the autistic person want? It is so easy for us, as parents, (in general, with or without autism being involved) to ignore what our kids want in life and instead define that according to what WE want for then rather than what THEY want for themselves. Some unspoken social rule about needing to have many friends was one such definition I first came upon. Parent (and society) thinks child should have X amount of friends but child is perfectly happy with the number of friends they have. Who is correct here? The child is.

Yes, we all want what’s “best” for our kids….we want them to lead fruitful and productive lives….but most of all they need to be happy with the lives they lead, and need to be supported to make the changes that THEY feel are necessary in order to lead the lives that THEY want, not the lives WE want them to lead.

To this end yes, autism specific (and autism friendly) “therapies” are invaluable for those who want them….and for those who don’t want them that’s fine also. Everyone is entitled to the autonomy to choose their own path.

These members of the autistic community who keep trying to insist that we must all fit inside a tiny tightly defined box need to stop IMO. They are doing more harm to the cause than good. And I also believe that it is more a reflection of their own trauma or insecurities, than a general autism issue.

We need to 1. Ask the autistic person what they need to lead the life they want. 2. Support the autistic person to obtain whatever they decide they need.

We need to do this from the getgo. “What do you need….? How can I help you achieve that?” And if they are non verbal we find ways to communicate and find out. (Yep, it’s hard, harder than taking the easy way out of making all the decisions for them) We can’t put our own desires and anxieties onto them. We must love them unconditionally and come from that place to continually find out what THEY want and need to make their life better.

And we have to accept that it may look very different to what WE thought they might want or need.

In a meeting I was in last night on the topic of “ASD politics” this article was the main topic as well as the comments. Among other things we decided if we ever did start a group that attempts to “educate” parents in general (personally I have been blessed by parents who do what you suggest) we came up with potential future group name of “Hi, we are autistic. Are you listening?”

We need to have more options available to us, if autistic people don’t want a potential cure that’s fine, but they shouldn’t try and come together a community to stop research from finding one. Autism can be very debilitating for a lot of people and families, so having a cure available could do so much to improve the quality of life for many. If it takes thousands of hours of therapy to learn basic life skills that typical children master in very little time, then we can’t simply see autism as a “gift”, or different way of viewing the world. We have to see it for what it can be, a hugely detrimental disability that can destroy people’s lives.

Jason Cline, you are so correct. If I could have spared my son of the YEARS of teasing, I would have. If people are happy and well-adjusted, no “corrections” are needed. However, for those who are enable to adapt, this research offers hope. Thank you.

I feel speech is one communication we have learnt to get around. Using one word instead of a sentence still does not prevent us as as a family communicating in sentences. My three year old understands but mainly answers with very few words, yes or no. Food is complex and has led to other issues. We have learnt to use the combination she likes. Still much time wasted on the way forward by the specialists

This article is both disgusting and disturbing. While there are aspects of autism that we do need assistance in, autism is not something that needs to be “cured”. The sooner they learn that augism is permanent, the better. It’s a disability, yes. But sometimes it’s not always bad. Some of our characteristics can come in handy in multiple situations. Since I just woke up, I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

Knowledge is power. Not everyone likes the same books, food, shoes. When we do not recognizing new research whether we like it or not should not prevent further research to be done. I teach in a public schoolsetting. I am blessed to be surrounded by kids with and without physical and learning disabilities. These disabilities are just obstacles that make life a bit harder, not impossible. I have a family member who had dyslexia, he is now an engineer. I have another family member who was diagnosed at the age of 17 to be on the autism spectrum. He now creates and produces video games. I have students with nothing impending their learning, yet they choose to fail. They choose not to do homework, write essays, or read books. When asked why, they respond they did not want to. These same students excelle on standardize test. Embrace research, progress. It may be the right fit for some, maybe not all. We should not belittle others for trying to help people they may know struggle.

while I do think that there is things that can be learned from this research, I think that motive behind it, and the idea of having to “cure” autism actions flawed. there is nothing wrong with being autistic, and nobody should be trying to “fix“ autistic people. really people should just try to learn to be more understanding and not constantly think that neurodivergent people have something wrong with them.

Neurological diversity looks different in nearly every description of the understanding because no two bodies function exactly the dance. Idiosyncratic functions express our unique eccentricities. Take for example, synesthesia, a neurological enhancement experienced by 1 in 20k humans may actually be more like 1-300. It is my belief that when and if we begin to understand the various neurological differences we can better understand a more rounded definition of individualism, prejudicial treatment practices, and how we can better support every human attempting to live their best life!

I would like a cure for my Aspergers. I agree with others that this shouldn’t be forced on anyone, but why should those of us who don’t want to have Aspergers or Autism anymore not be allowed to be rid of it if they want to be?

I just want a normal life where I can understand sarcasm like others, know what to do in a social situation, have as many chances to date as other people, be able to make friends more easily and not get obsessed about certain things.

I want the same experiences that everyday people have and to live my life to the fullest! I hope everyday for a cure to this debilitating disorder.

Fck this so much, thanks for promoting literal eugenics! 🙂 It’s the fkking world that needs to change and understand that everyone isn’t the same and shouldn’t be shoved into a singular mold. It’s hurting EVERYONE and needs to stop.

This is a wonderful Christmas gift, I have a lot of hope that eventually we’ll find a cure for this maddening disorder and families will never have to suffer being unable to enjoy their children because of this debilitating condition.

I really love the comment from the person who objects to it being called a disorder. I have also been diagnosed with what is commonly called Asperger’s syndrome. I think it’s somewhat funny that we have had something in the diagnostic manual whose chief characteristic is being highly intelligent. Perhaps if we called it intelligent persons syndrome we be trying to develop something that would make everybody this way. We live in a world that is happily embracing sexual diversity but we don’t want to embrace psychological diversity. Do we only want to have vanilla as our choices and eliminate chocolate, caramel, cinnamon?

Please get the medicine for autism as soon as possible,my son is 3.5 yrs old,unable to express his feelings,it’s so hard for him to attend therapies,supplements to eat in this 3 yrs age,and I see a lot of parents are suffering almost dieing for their kids to recover,and trying hard to help them with the tears and prayers,iam one of them,please help these children and parents to give a second chance to live a happy life

I am also searching for new research-based narrow down diagnosis of ASD and treatment. Please guide if there is any breakthrough in this regards.

For this web site, you will see our account, remember to go through this info.

Listed here you’ll learn it is important, them offers the link in an helpful webpage:

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Treatment for autism symptoms earns ASU researchers patent

Microbiota Transplant Therapy offering hope to those with autism spectrum disorder

ASU Professor Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown and Assistant Professor Daewook Kang (now with the University of Toledo) in an ASU file photo from 2017. Krajmalnik-Brown, Kang and Professor James Adams are three of six co-inventors who were awarded a patent for their treatment for autism and related symptoms.

Editor’s note:  This story is featured in the  2022 year in review .

A new treatment for autism, created by Arizona State University researchers and their colleagues, has been granted a patent by the U.S. Patent Office. The therapy, called Microbiota Transplant Therapy (MTT), is aimed at improving chronic gastrointestinal symptoms often associated with the disorder.

Receiving the approval of the patent for this promising treatment is also an important step toward developing a Food and Drug Administration approved medication for treating the core symptoms of autism. An initial study of Microbiota Transplant Therapy suggests that it may be effective in treating both core autism symptoms and chronic gastrointestinal symptoms.

Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown , ASU professor and director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes, and a pioneer in research on the gut microbiome and autism, is a co-inventor of the treatment.

“Our mission at the ASU Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes is to improve human health by developing new methods to modify the microbiome. This is at the core of our center, and it’s exciting that we have a patent to achieve this,” said Krajmalnik-Brown, a professor with the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

Autism now affects one in 44 children in the United States, often presenting major challenges in language, social interactions and behavior. Many people with autism have significant health problems, including 30–50% with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms such as constipation, diarrhea and abdominal pain. These symptoms are difficult to treat and can persist for many years or even decades. Chronic pain caused by gastrointestinal distress can worsen other symptoms associated with autism, including irritability, attention deficits, behavioral issues and sleep disturbances.

“We are excited about this patent approval. Our open-label pilot study and two-year follow-up study found major improvements in gastrointestinal and autism symptoms. Now, we are conducting randomized clinical trials to fully evaluate the efficacy of treatment with MTT,” said co-inventor James Adams . Adams is a professor with the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the seven Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU.

James Adams

In 2017, the ASU researchers and their collaborators developed MTT to improve gastrointestinal symptoms. MTT involves pre-treatment with a special antibiotic to eliminate harmful bacteria, a bowel cleanse to remove remaining bacteria, and purified intestinal microbiota from healthy, carefully screened human donors.

The treatment, similar to the fecal transplant commonly used to treat intestinal infections such as C. Difficile, involves 10 weeks of intense daily therapy. The approach is based on pioneering research by Dr. Thomas Borody with the Centre for Digestive Diseases in Australia, who first used this method to successfully treat his patients with autism, and Professors Alex Khoruts and Michael Sadowsky at the University of Minnesota, who developed the methods for producing purified microbiota. 

In their 2017 study, Adams, Krajmalnik-Brown and their research team found that MTT reduced gastrointestinal symptoms by approximately 80%, and initially reduced autism symptoms by about 25%. But, as an open-label study, they observed some placebo-effect. A follow-up study of all 18 participants two years after the treatment was completed found that most continued to see a considerable improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms. Additionally, an expert autism evaluator reported a nearly 50% reduction in core autism symptoms.

Measurements of the participants’ microbiota at Krajmalnik-Brown’s lab by Assistant Professor Daewook Kang (now with the University of Toledo) showed that although the children, aged 7 to 16 at the time of the study, initially had a low diversity of gut bacteria, the diversity and presence of beneficial microbes had increased and improved in the two years following the treatment. Based on these promising results, the FDA granted “fast track” status for MTT in 2019, which means a rapid review and more assistance from the FDA.

Recent research suggests our gut microbiomes affect brain communication and neurological health. Worldwide, interest is growing in the idea that changes in normal gut microbiota may be responsible for triggering various conditions. At ASU, a research team is exploring using the microbiome to treat autism symptoms. Image by Shireen Dooling

Approval of the patent is also important because pharmaceutical companies can invest in conducting Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials, which are required for FDA approval and release of the treatment to the public. The patent has been licensed to Finch Therapeutics, which is planning clinical trials in mid-2022.

Meanwhile, the ASU team is continuing its own Phase 2 clinical trials for adults with autism (the final participants have started treatment) and children with autism (half of the participants have started treatment). These studies will be important for ultimately winning FDA approval.

Information on the patent, as well as a full list of collaborators, can be found on the U.S. Patent Office website (U.S. Patent number 11202808).

More Science and technology

ASU teams up with industry for moon rover project to advance lunar exploration for NASA Artemis missions

Arizona State University continues to advance its presence in the commercial space sector, building strategic partnerships with…

ASU workgroup addresses ethical questions about the use of AI in higher ed

As artificial intelligence becomes more ubiquitous in our everyday lives, the AI and Ethics Workgroup at Arizona State University…

The tiny bone that led to a very big discovery

Nov. 24 will mark 50 years since Arizona State University’s Donald Johanson discovered the Lucy fossil skeleton. It’s a find that…

Researchers Studying Century-Old Drug in Potential New Approach to Autism

Small, randomized clinical trial reported measurable, but transient, benefits after single dose of suramin, highlighting novel causative theory and need for more, larger and longer trials

A colorized transmission electron micrograph of cellular mitochondria, which produce a small molecule called ATP. Inside cells, ATP serves as an energy source but released outside the cell, it acts as a danger signal. Suramin inhibits the signaling function of ATP, eliminating the cell danger response associated with autism. Photo by Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, UC San Diego

• Scott LaFee

Media Contact:

• Scott LaFee - [email protected]
• Heather Buschman - [email protected]

Published Date

Share this:, article content.

In a small, randomized Phase I/II clinical trial (SAT1), researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say a 100-year-old drug called suramin, originally developed to treat African sleeping sickness, was safely administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who subsequently displayed measurable, but transient, improvement in core symptoms of autism.

ASD encompasses a group of developmental disorders, often characterized by communication and language difficulties, repetitive behaviors and inability to socialize. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that ASD occurs in 1 in 68 children, with the condition 4 times more common in boys than girls. ASD has no single known cause, but may involve both genetic problems and environmental factors, such as viral infections, pollutants or complications during pregnancy. One of the aims of the SAT1 study was to test the cell danger hypothesis as a possible unifying theory that contributes to the pathogenesis of ASD.

Writing in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurolog y , first author Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues describe a novel double-blind, placebo-controlled safety study involving 10 boys, ages 5 to 14 years, all diagnosed with ASD.

Five of the 10 boys received a single, intravenous infusion of suramin, a drug originally developed in 1916 to treat trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and river blindness, both caused by parasites. The other five boys received a placebo. The trial followed earlier testing in a mouse model of autism in which a single dose of suramin temporarily reversed symptoms of the neurological disorder.

The results in humans were equally notable, though the purpose of the SAT1 trial was fundamentally to test the researchers’ underlying theory about a unifying cause for autism and to assess the safety of suramin, which is not an approved treatment of ASD. In fact, there are no approved drugs to treat the core symptoms of ASD.

All five boys who received the suramin infusion displayed improvements in language and social behavior, restricted or repetitive behaviors and coping skills. Assessment of improvements was based upon observational examinations and interviews using standardized tests and questionnaires, such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2), the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Testing (EOWPWT), the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) questionnaire. To minimize misinterpretation of natural day-to-day variations in symptoms, parents were asked to mark a symptom as changed in the 6-week CGI only if the symptom lasted for at least one week.

The researchers found that ADOS-2 scores were improved in the suramin treatment group at six weeks, but not in the placebo group. Specifically, ADOS-2 scores improved by -1.6 points in the suramin group, but did not change in the placebo. Children who have a score of 6 or lower in ADOS-2 may have milder symptoms but no longer meet the formal diagnostic criteria for ASD. A score of 7 to 8 indicates the child is on the autism spectrum. Nine and above classifies the child as autistic.

Suramin treatment was also associated with improvements in the ABC, ATEC and CGI measurements, but not RBQ. The most changed behaviors, the authors said, were social communication and play, speech and language, calm and focus, repetitive behaviors and coping skills.

Participating families also reported benefits among the children who received suramin. “We saw improvements in our son after suramin that we have never seen before,” said the parent of a 14-year-old who had not spoken a complete sentence in 12 years.

“Within an hour after the infusion, he started to make more eye contact with the doctor and nurses in the room. There was a new calmness at times, but also more emotion at other times. He started to show an interest in playing hide-and-seek with his 16-year-old brother. He started practicing making new sounds around the house. He started seeking out his dad more.

“We have tried every new treatment out there for over 10 years. Nothing has come close to all the changes in language and social interaction and new interests that we saw after suramin. We saw our son advance almost three years in development in just six weeks.”

Cell Danger Response

Naviaux, who is co-director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at UC San Diego, believes that ASD — and several other chronic conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome and some autoimmune disorders — are caused by metabolic dysfunction or impaired communication between cells in the brain, gut and immune system.

Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology, and co-director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at UC San Diego School of Medicine, led the study that tested suramin in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Specifically, this dysfunction is caused by abnormal persistence of the cell danger response (CDR), a natural and universal cellular reaction to injury or stress. “The purpose of CDR is to help protect the cell and jump-start the healing process,” said Naviaux, by essentially causing the cell to harden its membranes, cease interaction with neighbors and withdraw within itself until the danger has passed.

“But sometimes CDR gets stuck,” Naviaux said. “This prevents completion of the natural healing cycle and can permanently alter the way the cell responds to the world. When this happens, cells behave as if they are still injured or in imminent danger, even though the original cause of the injury or threat has passed.”

At the molecular level, cellular homeostasis or equilibrium is altered, creating an abnormal cellular response that leads to chronic disease. “When this happens during early child development,” said Naviaux, “it causes autism and many other chronic childhood disorders.”

Suramin works by inhibiting the signaling function of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleotide or small molecule produced by cellular mitochondria and released from the cell as a danger signal. When CDR is activated, the effect of extracellular ATP is similar to a warning siren that never stops. Suramin inhibits the binding of ATP and similar molecules to key purinergic receptors, according to Naviaux. It silences the siren, “signaling the cellular war is over, the danger has passed and cells can return to ‘peacetime’ jobs like normal neurodevelopment, growth and healing.”

“There is evidence, gathered over the past 10 to 15 years, that children with ASD can exhibit oxidative stress, an outcome of the cell danger response,” said Pat Levitt, PhD, Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and W.M. Keck Provost Professor in Neurogenetics at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. “This can impact how well neurons and circuits function. Why this would impose problems on certain circuits that mediate specific behaviors, such as social communication, is unclear, but this is why understanding how genetic risk and environmental factors combine to increase risk for autism spectrum disorder is important.”

Levitt was not involved in the study.

Dramatic, but Temporary Benefit

“We had four non-verbal children in the study,” said Naviaux, “two 6-year-olds and two 14-year-olds. The six-year-old and the 14-year-old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion. This did not happen in any of the children given the placebo.”

Developed in 1916 by German dye manufacturers Frederich Bayer and Co., Bayer 205 (later renamed suramin) was found to be effective against parasitic trypanosomes responsible for African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). This bottle of suramin powder was given out free of charge for clinical trials of the first production batch. Photo courtesy of Science Museum, London.

Additionally, Naviaux said, “that during the time the children were on suramin, benefit from all their usual therapies and enrichment programs increased dramatically. Once suramin removed the roadblocks to development, the benefit from speech therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavioral analysis and even from playing games with other children during recess at school skyrocketed. Suramin was synergistic with their other therapies.”

Naviaux and colleagues do not believe CDR is the cause of ASD, but rather a fundamental driver that combines with other factors, such as genetics or environmental toxins. And suramin, at this stage, is not the ultimate answer.

Unlike treatment for African sleeping sickness, which involves multiple, higher doses of suramin over a period of time and frequently results in a number of adverse side effects ranging from nausea and diarrhea to low blood pressure and kidney problems, researchers said the single, low dose of suramin used in the ASD trial produced no serious side effects beyond a passing skin rash.

But the therapeutic benefit of suramin was temporary: Improvements in the treated boys’ cognitive functions and behaviors peaked and then gradually faded after several weeks as the single dose of suramin wore off.

The primary import of the trial’s findings, said Naviaux, is that it points a way forward, that suramin should be tested in larger, more diverse cohorts of persons with ASD. (Naviaux said his research has been limited by costs; his lab is primarily supported through philanthropy.)

“This work is new and this type of clinical trial is expensive,” he said. “We did not have enough funding to do a larger study. And even with the funding we were able to raise, we had to go $500,000 in debt to complete the trial.”

Larger and longer trials would include multiple doses of suramin over longer periods of time, allowing researchers to map whether improvements continue or if uncommon side effects appear when participant numbers are greater.

If Not Suramin, Maybe Something Like It

Andrew W. Zimmerman, MD, a clinical professor of pediatrics and neurology at the UMass Memorial Medical Center who was not involved in the suramin trial but is conducting similar research, described the study results as “very encouraging for the field of autism, not only for the positive effects of suramin for the children who received the drug, but also for confirmation of the important ‘cell danger response.’

African sleeping sickness (trypanomiasis) is caused by the bite of tsetse flies infected by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Trypanosoma. Tsetse flies are found only in sub-Saharan Africa; only some species transmit the disease. Photo courtesy of Geoffrey M. Attardo.

“As the authors point out, many genetic variants have been found in ASD, but few have led to specific treatments. The CDR includes a number of metabolic pathways that may be affected by a number of genetic mutations or by environmental factors that have effects epigenetically — beyond the genes themselves.”

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved suramin for any therapeutic use in the United States. It is not commercially available. Naviaux noted that new trials could prove suramin is not an effective ASD treatment. Its benefits may prove too limited over the long term, he said, or an unacceptable safety issue might arise.

But “even if suramin itself is not the best antipurinergic drug for autism, our studies have helped blaze the trail for the development of new antipurinergic drugs that might be even better,” said Naviaux. “Before our work, no one knew that purinergic signaling abnormalities were a part of autism. Now we do, and new drugs can be developed rationally and systematically.”

Levitt at USC agreed: “The suramin pilot study is too small from which to draw specific conclusions about the treatment, but there is no doubt that the pilot study reports positive outcomes for all five children who received the medication. The findings provide a strong rationale for developing a larger study that can probe functional improvements in children in greater depth.”

The potential financial cost of ASD treatment using suramin cannot yet be determined for several reasons, the study authors said. First, additional trials are required to determine the effective dosage and frequency for different types of patients. Suramin is used much differently for treating sleeping sickness, but the cost for a one month course of treatment is modest: approximately $27. Second, the age of the drug means that, if approved, it would almost certainly result in cheaper, generic formulations, but there is no way to accurately predict how that would play out at this time.

John Rodakis, founder and president of the N of One: Autism Research Foundation, which provided funding support for the study, said that despite all of the necessary caveats and need for additional research, the findings are “promising, hopeful work for a community of affected families that have been given little in the way of answers by medicine.”

Special Note from the Authors

Suramin is not approved for the treatment of autism. Like many intravenous drugs, when administered improperly by untrained personnel, at the wrong dose and schedule, without careful measurement of drug levels and monitoring for toxicity, suramin can cause harm. Careful clinical trials will be needed over several years at several sites to learn how to use low-dose suramin safely in autism, and to identify drug-drug interactions and rare side effects that cannot currently be predicted. We strongly caution against the unauthorized use of suramin.

Co-authors include: Brooke Curtis and Alan Lincoln, Alliant International University; Kefeng Li, Jane C. Naviaux, A. Taylor Bright, Gail E. Reiner, Marissa Westerfield, William A. Alaynick, Lin Wang, Edmund V. Capparelli, Cynthia Adams, Ji Sun, Sonia Jain, Feng He, Deyna A. Arellano, Lisa E. Mash, Leanne Chukoskie, and senior author Jeanne Townsend, UC San Diego; and Suzanne Goh, Pediatric Neurology Therapeutics.

Funding for this research came entirely from philanthropic donations, including support from the William Wright Family Foundation, the UC San Diego Christini Fund, the Autism Research Institute, the Lennox Foundation, the Gupta Family and Satya Fund, the Agrawal Family, Linda Clark, the N of One: Autism Research Foundation, the Rodakis Family, the It Takes Guts Foundation, the UC San Diego Mitochondrial Disease Research Fund, Elizabeth Mumper Cooper and the Daniel and Kelly White Family. Funding for the mass spectrometers was provided by a gift from the Jane Botsford Johnson Foundation.

Disclosure: Robert Naviaux has filed a provisional patent application related to antipurinergic therapy of autism and related disorders. He is a scientific board member for the Autism Research Institute and the Open Medicine Foundation. Edmund V. Capparelli is a DSMB member for Cempra Pharmaceuticals and The Medicines Company, and a consultant for Alexion. Suzanne Goh is co-owner of MitoMedical.

For non-media information: Contact the Naviaux lab at naviauxlab.ucsd.edu

You May Also Like

Borderzone breakthrough: a new source of cardiac inflammation, uc san diego’s mandeville art gallery receives grant from new york-based teiger foundation, climate crisis survey reveals scientists’ willingness to act – and barriers to action, closing the rna loop holds promise for more stable, effective rna therapies, stay in the know.

Keep up with all the latest from UC San Diego. Subscribe to the newsletter today.

You have been successfully subscribed to the UC San Diego Today Newsletter.

Campus & Community

Arts & culture, visual storytelling.

• Media Resources & Contacts

Signup to get the latest UC San Diego newsletters delivered to your inbox.

Award-winning publication highlighting the distinction, prestige and global impact of UC San Diego.

Popular Searches: Covid-19   Ukraine   Campus & Community   Arts & Culture   Voices

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• Your Health
• Treatments & Tests
• Health Inc.
• Public Health

Brain cells, interrupted: How some genes may cause autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia

Jon Hamilton

New research probes the relationship between certain genes and brain disorders like autism and schizophrenia. Jill George / NIH hide caption

New research probes the relationship between certain genes and brain disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

A team of researchers has developed a new way to study how genes may cause autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders: by growing tiny brain-like structures in the lab and tweaking their DNA.

These "assembloids," described in the journal Nature , could one day help researchers develop targeted treatments for autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, schizophrenia, and epilepsy.

"This really accelerates our effort to try to understand the biology of psychiatric disorders," says Dr. Sergiu Pașca , a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and an author of the study.

The research suggests that someday "we'll be able to predict which pathways we can target to intervene" and prevent these disorders, adds Kristen Brennand , a professor of psychiatry at Yale who was not involved in the work.

Shots - Health News

Researchers link autism to a system that insulates brain wiring.

The study comes after decades of work identifying hundreds of genes that are associated with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. But scientists still don't know how problems with these genes alter the brain.

"The challenge now is to figure out what they're actually doing, how disruptions in these genes are actually causing disease," Pașca says. "And that has been really difficult."

For ethical reasons, scientists can't just edit a person's genes to see what happens. They can experiment on animal brains, but lab animals like rodents don't really develop anything that looks like autism or schizophrenia.

So Pașca and a team of scientists tried a different approach, which they detailed in their new paper .

The team did a series of experiments using tiny clumps of human brain cells called brain organoids . These clumps will grow for a year or more in the lab, gradually organizing their cells much the way a developing brain would. And by exposing an organoid to certain growth factors, scientists can coax it into resembling tissue found in brain areas including the cortex and hippocampus.

"We can actually make different parts of the nervous system in a dish from stem cells ," Pașca says. When these parts are placed in the same dish, they will even form connections, much like an actual brain. The resulting structure is called an assembloid .

Pașca's team thought they could use assembloids to study how developmental disorder genes affect special brain cells called interneurons, which are thought to play a role in several psychiatric disorders.

Research News

The first wiring map of an insect's brain hints at incredible complexity.

During pregnancy and the first two years of life, these special cells must complete a remarkable journey.

"Interneurons are born in deep regions of the brain, and then they have to migrate all the way to the cortex," Pașca says. "So you can imagine that during that migration a lot of things could go awry."

Pașca's team simulated the migration of interneurons by creating assembloids containing two types of organoids. One resembled an area deep in the brain called the subpallium, where most interneurons are generated. The other organoid resembled the cerebral cortex, where interneurons are supposed to end up.

"And then we've put them together, allowing these interneurons to move towards the cerebral cortex," he says.

The process worked just the way it's supposed to in assembloids containing typical organoids. So next, the team used a gene-editing technique called CRISPR to alter the organoids.

This approach allowed the team to study the effect of more than 400 genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. And they found that 46 of those genes were involved in either the generation of interneurons, or with their migration. Knock out a part of those genes and interneurons no longer arrived where they were supposed to.

In the cerebral cortex, interneurons serve as inhibitory neurons, which means they act a bit like the brake in a car. The interneurons can release a neurotransmitter that tells other neurons to reduce their activity.

Meanwhile, excitatory neurons act as the accelerator, telling other cells to become more active.

Brain networks rely on a delicate balance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Too much acceleration and the result can be an epileptic seizure. Too much brake and vital information may get lost or delayed.

Want to understand your adolescent? Get to know their brain

The study is important because it offers a way for scientists to study the effect of many genes at the same time, and identify the ones that affect a particular type of cell or cell function during brain development, says Dr. Guo-li Ming , a professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.

The research also shows clearly how gene variants could lead to autism or some other neurodevelopmental disorder by disturbing interneurons.

"That would be a disaster" in a developing brain, Ming says. "The circuitry would be wrong and the signaling would be wrong, and ultimately the brain functioning would be wrong."

Ming, who was not connected with study, says her lab would like to use the combination of assembloids and CRISPR in their own research on schizophrenia, another psychiatric disorder with a neurodevelopmental origin.

Pașca's study could help brain scientists make the sort of advances that cancer researchers have in the past few decades, says Brennand.

"Thirty years ago, we might have thought all intestinal cancers should be treated the same way and all lung cancers should be treated the same way," she says. "Now we know a lot better."

Instead of choosing treatments according to the location of a cancer, doctors study a tumor's genes to determine which therapy is most likely to work. A similar approach could eventually help people with autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, and schizophrenia, Brennand says.

"This improved genetic understanding will let us do better," she says, "because we'll know which pathways we can target to intervene."

• neuroscience
• schizophrenia
• genetic research
• neurobiology
• autism spectrum disorder
• brain disorders

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals

Autism spectrum disorders articles from across Nature Portfolio

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that are characterized by impaired social interaction and communication skills, and are often accompanied by other behavioural symptoms such as repetitive or stereotyped behaviour and abnormal sensory processing. Individual symptoms and cognitive functioning vary across the autism spectrum disorders.

Latest Research and Reviews

Executive function deficits in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or autism spectrum disorder show executive function deficits compared to neurotypical peers. In this Review, Kofler et al. question the evidence to examine whether these deficits are shared across both conditions and provide recommendations for future work.

• Michael J. Kofler
• Elia F. Soto
• Erica D. Musser

Twinned neuroimaging analysis contributes to improving the classification of young people with autism spectrum disorder

• Iman Jahani
• Bradley J. MacIntosh

Mapping cerebellar anatomical heterogeneity in mental and neurological illnesses

This study maps cerebellar anatomy across the lifespan using over 54,000 brain scans from 132 scanning sites and identifies that patients with autism spectrum disorder, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer disease, and schizophrenia are likely to have deviations in cerebellar anatomy.

• Esten Leonardsen
• Torgeir Moberget

Individual differences in interoception and autistic traits share altered facial emotion perception, but not recognition per se

• Milica Nikolić
• Mariska E. Kret

Male autism spectrum disorder is linked to brain aromatase disruption by prenatal BPA in multimodal investigations and 10HDA ameliorates the related mouse phenotype

Prenatal bisphenol A exposure is associated with an increased risk of ASD in boys through a mechanism involving aromatase suppression. These resulting ASD-related behaviors and brain abnormalities may be reversed through postnatal intervention with 10HDA in mice.

• Christos Symeonides
• Kristina Vacy
• Wah Chin Boon

Reduced excitatory activity in the developing mPFC mediates a PV H -to-PV L transition and impaired social cognition in autism spectrum disorders

• Liangliang Wang

News and Comment

The exclusively inclusive landscape of autism research.

People with intellectual disability are underrepresented and often actively excluded from autism research. A better understanding of autism requires inclusive research approaches that accurately represent the broad heterogeneity of the autistic population.

• Lauren Jenner
• Joanna Moss

Association of fluvoxamine with mortality and symptom resolution among inpatients with COVID-19

• Guangting Zeng
• Jianqiang Li
• Zanling Zhang

Autistic people three times more likely to develop Parkinson’s-like symptoms

Largest study of its kind also finds increased risk in older adults with a range of intellectual disabilities.

• Miryam Naddaf

Targeting RNA opens therapeutic avenues for Timothy syndrome

A therapeutic strategy that alters gene expression in a rare and severe neurodevelopmental condition has been tested in stem-cell-based models of the disease, and has been shown to correct genetic and cellular defects.

• Silvia Velasco

Vasopressin deficiency: a hypothesized driver of both social impairment and fluid imbalance in autism spectrum disorder

• Lauren Clarke
• Neil Gesundheit
• Karen J. Parker

Oscillatory index of speech reception deficits

• Jean Mary Zarate

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

News Center

Northwestern investigators develop new therapy for autism subtype.

A team of Northwestern investigators led by Peter Penzes, PhD , the Ruth and Evelyn Dunbar Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment , has developed a new therapy that could treat Phelan-McDermid syndrome, a subtype of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to findings published in Molecular Psychiatry .  

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 44 children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ASD and each patient presents diverse clinical and developmental symptoms, which may include delayed speech, motor skills and learning skills, epilepsy, poor eating and sleeping habits, and gastrointestinal issues.  

Phelan-McDermid syndrome is known to be caused by a specific genetic mutation in SHANK3, a well-known ASD candidate gene. Due to the heterogeneity of ASD, the development of effective targeted therapies has been extremely challenging, leaving patients with treatment options that improve disease management. 

Based on the urgent need for new therapies, Penzes’ team developed a derivative of an insulin-like growth factor-binding protein, IGFBP2, which is found in structures of the brain affected in ASD and has been shown to improve neuroplasticity and cognitive functions.  

In the current study, the investigators administered the IGFBP2-derived peptide, called JB2, to mice with SHANK3 mutations. Through advanced brain imaging, they found that the drug improved neuroplasticity, behavior impairments and cellular processes in the mices’ brains.  

These changes were directly correlated with improvements in the mices’ learning and memory skills, motor function and communication through ultrasonic vocalizations, findings that could be translated to social behaviors in humans, according to Penzes. 

“In patients with autism, speech doesn’t develop at all, or it develops very late, or it’s very simplified, so these ultrasonic vocalizations in mice are thought to somehow model that in mice,” said Penzes, who is also professor of Neuroscience and of  Pharmacology . 

Using electroencephalography to measure the mice’s brain activity, the team also discovered that JB2 normalized neuronal excitability, or how neurons respond to stimuli with an electric charge, and seizure susceptibility.  

While the drug is still in early stages, Penzes said, theoretically, routinely administering the drug into patients’ bloodstreams while they are young either through regular injections or in pill form would be ideal.   

“Because this is a neurodevelopmental condition, the brain still changes after birth, even into adulthood. The earlier one could intervene, the better. So, it would be preferable to start it as a pediatric medication, but those are more difficult to get approval for,” Penzes said.   

Penzes noted that initial clinical trials would involve participants with Phelan-McDermid syndrome and if successful, could eventually expand to include patients with other types of ASD.  

“The assumption is that similar changes are happening in the brains of patients with other types of autism and in Phelan-McDermid syndrome, but these patients would have a better response,” Penzes said.  

Co-authors of the study include Sehyoun Yoon, PhD , research assistant professor of Neuroscience, Jeffrey Burgdorf, PhD, adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, Marc Dos Santos, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Penzes laboratory, and Joseph Moskal, PhD, professor of Biomedical Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering.  

This work, part of ongoing efforts by the Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment to develop new therapies, was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant R41MH121140. 

Related Posts

Northwestern receives $55 million to advance health research, oncoprotein activity increases prostate cancer progression, older adults in illinois at increased risk for suicide.

Comments are closed.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Why the focus of autism research is shifting away from searching for a 'cure'

When Lizzie Acevedo’s fraternal twin sons, now 15, were newly diagnosed with autism, she was hopeful about diets and vitamin injections that were being touted as miracle treatments or even cures.

Around age 4, the boys were on a gluten-free, casein-free diet, and for a couple months they mainly ate a special organic brand of chicken nuggets. Wheat products or anything else with gluten were out, as were dairy foods containing the milk protein casein. Acevedo also started giving vitamin B12 injections, prescribed by a Defeat Autism Now! doctor, to her son Omar, who is nonverbal and has more significant intellectual disabilities than his brother, Jorge, who speaks and is more independent.

“Back then, I just needed something to make things better,” Acevedo said. She tried the treatments for a few months but stopped when she didn’t see a noticeable effect.

Now, a decade later, Acevedo has heard about lots of hyped alternative approaches for autism, most recently worrisome reports of parents giving their kids bleach drinks or enemas. However, she’s also learned there aren’t any quick remedies for autism, which affects brain development and is characterized by difficulties with communication and social skills and by restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.

“There’s no cure for autism and anybody who tries to sell you a cure is lying,” Acevedo, a single parent and a fifth grade teacher in Los Angeles, said.

But she understands why parents of autistic children can fall prey to scams . “I’ve been where they are now, and I know how desperate it feels to want to get your child to be better,” she said.

'More complicated than anyone ever thought'

When autism research started to really accelerate a couple decades ago, many scientists thought finding a cure might be easier. Today, the latest science points away from a single cure, but there are ways to help autistic people lead healthier, happier lives and more that can be done to help.

“I think that given the complexity and the variability of the causes and the manifestations of autism, trying to come up with a cure is probably not the right approach,” said autism researcher and psychologist Len Abbeduto, director of the University of California, Davis, MIND Institute in Sacramento.

An estimated 80 percent of autism cases involve genetic factors , and it tends to run in families, but there is no single “autism gene,” Abbeduto explained. In fact, research has shown that more than 100 genes, and maybe upwards of 1,000, may play a role. Researchers also suspect that environmental factors — such as exposures to infectious agents, pesticides or other toxins in pregnancy — may play a role.

“Scientists are investing a lot of work into understanding the genes but we’re also realizing it’s a lot more complicated than anybody ever thought when they started out,” psychologist Ann Wagner, national autism coordinator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said.

It’s highly likely that there are different causes for different kinds of ASD.

“We do know that it’s highly genetic, we just haven’t identified how particular kinds of genes might interact with each other or with other factors to cause autism spectrum disorder,” Wagner said. “Autism is such a heterogenous disorder, so it’s highly likely that there are different causes for different kinds of ASD.”

These research developments come amid growing controversy over whether autism even needs a cure. Autism Speaks , an advocacy and research group founded in 2005, removed the word “cure” from its mission statement in 2016.

“In the beginning, [researchers] were looking more for the magic bullet, the magic pill. We were looking for the autism gene, and we thought that would ultimately lead to some kind of cure of autism,” psychologist Thomas Frazier, chief science officer at Autism Speaks in New York, said. “Then we recognized that we were way off base.”

Focusing on early diagnosis

Now, researchers have turned much of their attention to identifying autism in children as early as possible in hopes of intervening sooner with therapies to try to alter the developmental trajectory of their young brains. While skilled practitioners can diagnose autism in toddlers at 18 to 24 months of age — with some research indicating there are detectable signs in babies as young as 6 months — most kids aren’t diagnosed until age 4.

Katarzyna Chawarska, a professor of child psychiatry who leads Yale University’s Autism Center of Excellence in New Haven , Connecticut, is studying signs of autism in babies. “The reason why we are focusing so much on early diagnosis is that it is our hope that by intervening early, we can capitalize on still tremendous brain plasticity that is present in the first, second, third year of life,” she said.

The goal, Chawarska said, is “to help alleviate the symptoms and make sure that every child with autism reaches their full potential.”

If you’re trying to get rid of autism, you’re trying to get rid of us.

Doctors, for instance, would like to minimize any intellectual disabilities and help patients communicate better and improve socials skills. They also want to quickly identify and address any medical conditions that often accompany autism, such as seizures, gastrointestinal problems, sleep disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and anxiety.

Researchers already are seeing positive results with interventions such as behavioral treatments and speech therapy in toddlers.

“One of the things that we do know is that intensive early intervention improves outcomes for kids, so the earlier we can intervene the better,” Abbeduto said.

The idea of curing autism also has become highly controversial with the growth of the neurodiversity movement, which emphasizes respecting and valuing all people for who they are, regardless of whether they are “neurotypical.”

“The ‘C word’ raises a lot of attention in the community at large,” said Michael Maloney, executive director of the Organization for Autism Research , a group in Arlington, Virginia, that funds research to improve the daily lives of autistic people. “The largest objection is from people with autism who see themselves as independent and competent and don’t see themselves as broken and needing to be fixed.”

Among the critics is Julia Bascom, executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network , a Washington, D.C.-based group that is run by autistic people, including herself.

“Self-advocates have been largely successful at saying this concept of a cure is really offensive,” she said. “Who we are is OK, we just need support.”

Bascom isn’t opposed to research and therapies that help autistic people — as long as they aren’t trying to strip them of their autistic traits.

“If you’re trying to get rid of autism, you’re trying to get rid of us, and that’s something our community takes really personally,” she said. “There are certainly a lot of co-occurring conditions like epilepsy that a lot of us have that we’d like to not have. But we don’t tend to feel that way about autism and we get really concerned when we see all this money going into risk factors and causation and genetics as opposed to finding out why autistic people tend to have shorter lifespans, or why our suicide rate is nine times higher than average, or what autism really looks like in adults.”

Some of her other questions include why girls and people of color are diagnosed later in life, why autism has so many co-occurring conditions, why people with autism tend to react differently to medications, and why they engage in self-injurious behaviors, such as head banging and skin scratching.

Falling off the 'services cliff'

Like Acevedo’s boys, a growing number of teens and adults are living on the autism spectrum, but Bascom and others say there is far too little research on understanding how autistic people are affected across their lifespan and how to help them live life to the fullest. Most autism research dollars in the United States go toward understanding the biological underpinnings of autism in order to diagnose and treat young children.

Autism research spending in the U.S. totaled more than $364.4 million in 2016, the latest year for which figures are available, with 80 percent of that money coming from federal agencies and 20 percent from private organizations. Of the spending, just 2 percent went toward autism lifespan issues and 5 percent toward services, according to the government’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee . An additional 35 percent went to biology, 24 percent to risk factors, 16 percent to treatment and interventions, 10 percent to infrastructure and surveillance, and 8 percent to screening and diagnosis.

Paul Shattuck, director of the Life Course Outcomes Research Program at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute in Philadelphia, and a member of the scientific council of the Organization for Autism Research, agrees that not enough attention is paid to adults with autism.

“We’re expending a lot of effort for very young children with autism, but as a society we kind of drop the ball once these young people become young adults,” he said. “There’s really not much there for autistic adults or their families in terms of services or even thinking how to support autistic people across the lifespan.”

There aren’t exact figures on the total number of Americans with autism but by one estimation 3.5 million people are on the spectrum, and diagnoses have been increasing. About 1 in 59 children are on the autism spectrum, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures from 2014, up from 1 in 150 kids in 2000. While some of the increased prevalence may be a true increase in autism cases, the CDC says that a broader definition of the autism spectrum and improved diagnosis efforts likely contributed to the higher numbers.

By Shattuck’s latest research estimates, 70,000 to 80,000 or more autistic youths per year will turn 18. “That’s close to a million people over the next decade,” he said, highlighting an urgent need for research to address the health and well-being of autistic adults.

Autistic kids are eligible for special education services while they are in school, and services can last until age 21, but help is harder to come by after that. “When teens exit high school, they fall off what is called the services cliff,” Shattuck said. “It becomes much more difficult to find help and services once kids age out of eligibility for special education. And the young adult outcomes and the adult outcomes are pretty dismal frankly.”

After high school, most young autistic adults do not have jobs, career training or additional educational opportunities. Autistic adults also struggle to find independent living arrangements, maintain friendships, get involved with community activities or have enough money to pay for their needs, said Shattuck, whose center helps autistic people and their families with paperwork for Medicaid, Social Security, group housing and more. Many autistic adults continue to live with their parents, raising concerns about what happens when the parents pass away.

Wagner, the national autism coordinator, agrees there needs to be more research on autism across the lifespan and said the government is trying to attract and fund more research in this area.

Just like parents everywhere, Acevedo wants the best for her kids. But after Omar and Jorge finish high school and special education services end, she wonders — and worries — about what the future holds.

“I would love to see some more money put into the transition of young adults with autism into the most independent living situation they can get,” Acevedo said. “I would love to see money put into job training, taking the skills that these children have — because everybody has skills, something that they can do — and just really refining it and making these kids marketable to where they can earn some sort of income. There’s something about getting a paycheck and having your name on it as an adult that means so much, and I’m sure it’s going to mean a lot to my kids.”

Shattuck says helping autistic adults or those with disabilities ultimately helps everyone.

“Our organizations and our communities function better when we make space for everyone of all abilities,” he said. “It’s about helping ourselves and helping our communities be better, higher quality places for all of us.”

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook .

NBC News contributor Jacqueline Stenson is a health and fitness journalist who has written for the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Health, Self and Shape, among others. She also teaches at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Machine learning
• Sustainability
• Black holes
• Classes and programs

Departments

• Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Brain and Cognitive Sciences
• Architecture
• Political Science
• Mechanical Engineering

Centers, Labs, & Programs

• Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• Lincoln Laboratory
• School of Architecture + Planning
• School of Engineering
• School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
• Sloan School of Management
• School of Science
• MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Understanding why autism symptoms sometimes improve amid fever

Press contact :.

Previous image Next image

Scientists are catching up to what parents and other caregivers have been reporting for many years: When some people with autism spectrum disorders experience an infection that sparks a fever, their autism-related symptoms seem to improve.

With a pair of new grants from The Marcus Foundation, scientists at MIT and Harvard Medical School hope to explain how this happens in an effort to eventually develop therapies that mimic the “fever effect” to similarly improve symptoms.

“Although it isn’t actually triggered by the fever, per se, the ‘fever effect’ is real, and it provides us with an opportunity to develop therapies to mitigate symptoms of autism spectrum disorders,” says neuroscientist Gloria Choi , associate professor in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and affiliate of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

Choi will collaborate on the project with Jun Huh, associate professor of immunology at Harvard Medical School. Together the grants to the two institutions provide $2.1 million over three years.

“To the best of my knowledge, the ‘fever effect’ is perhaps the only natural phenomenon in which developmentally determined autism symptoms improve significantly, albeit temporarily,” Huh says. “Our goal is to learn how and why this happens at the levels of cells and molecules, to identify immunological drivers, and produce persistent effects that benefit a broad group of individuals with autism.”

The Marcus Foundation has been involved in autism work for over 30 years, helping to develop the field and addressing everything from awareness to treatment to new diagnostic devices.

“I have long been interested in novel approaches to treating and lessening autism symptoms, and doctors Choi and Huh have honed in on a bold theory,” says Bernie Marcus, founder and chair of The Marcus Foundation. “It is my hope that this Marcus Foundation Medical Research Award helps their theory come to fruition and ultimately helps improve the lives of children with autism and their families.”

Brain-immune interplay

For a decade, Huh and Choi have been investigating the connection between infection and autism. Their studies suggest that the beneficial effects associated with fever may arise from molecular changes in the immune system during infection, rather than on the elevation of body temperature, per se.

Their work in mice has shown that maternal infection during pregnancy, modulated by the composition of the mother’s microbiome, can lead to neurodevelopmental abnormalities in the offspring that result in autism-like symptoms, such as impaired sociability. Huh’s and Choi’s labs have traced the effect to elevated maternal levels of a type of immune-signaling molecule called IL-17a, which acts on receptors in brain cells of the developing fetus, leading to hyperactivity in a region of the brain’s cortex called S1DZ. In another study , they’ve shown how maternal infection appears to prime offspring to produce more IL-17a during infection later in life.

Building on these studies, a 2020 paper clarified the fever effect in the setting of autism. This research showed that mice that developed autism symptoms as a result of maternal infection while in utero would exhibit improvements in their sociability when they had infections — a finding that mirrored observations in people. The scientists discovered that this effect depended on over-expression of IL-17a, which in this context appeared to calm affected brain circuits. When the scientists administered IL-17a directly to the brains of mice with autism-like symptoms whose mothers had not been infected during pregnancy, the treatment still produced improvements in symptoms.

New studies and samples

This work suggested that mimicking the “fever effect” by giving extra IL-17a could produce similar therapeutic effects for multiple autism-spectrum disorders, with different underlying causes. But the research also left wide-open questions that must be answered before any clinically viable therapy could be developed. How exactly does IL-17a lead to symptom relief and behavior change in the mice? Does the fever effect work in the same way in people?

In the new project, Choi and Huh hope to answer those questions in detail.

“By learning the science behind the fever effect and knowing the mechanism behind the improvement in symptoms, we can have enough knowledge to be able to mimic it, even in individuals who don’t naturally experience the fever effect,” Choi says.

Choi and Huh will continue their work in mice seeking to uncover the sequence of molecular, cellular and neural circuit effects triggered by IL-17a and similar molecules that lead to improved sociability and reduction in repetitive behaviors. They will also dig deeper into why immune cells in mice exposed to maternal infection become primed to produce IL-17a.

To study the fever effect in people, Choi and Huh plan to establish a “biobank” of samples from volunteers with autism who do or don’t experience symptoms associated with fever, as well as comparable volunteers without autism. The scientists will measure, catalog, and compare these immune system molecules and cellular responses in blood plasma and stool to determine the biological and clinical markers of the fever effect.

If the research reveals distinct cellular and molecular features of the immune response among people who experience improvements with fever, the researchers could be able to harness these insights into a therapy that mimics the benefits of fever without inducing actual fever. Detailing how the immune response acts in the brain would inform how the therapy should be crafted to produce similar effects.

"We are enormously grateful and excited to have this opportunity," Huh says. "We hope our work will ‘kick up some dust’ and make the first step toward discovering the underlying causes of fever responses. Perhaps, one day in the future, novel therapies inspired by our work will help transform the lives of many families and their children with ASD [autism spectrum disorder]."

Share this news article on:

Related links.

• Gloria Choi
• The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Related Topics

• Brain and cognitive sciences
• Picower Institute
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatric disorders

Related Articles

Building a bridge between neuroscience and immunology

Research finds potential mechanism linking autism, intestinal inflammation

Study may explain how infections reduce autism symptoms

Studies help explain link between autism, severe infection during pregnancy

Previous item Next item

More MIT News

Students learn theater design through the power of play

Read full story →

A framework for solving parabolic partial differential equations

Designing better delivery for medical therapies

Making a measurable economic impact

Faces of MIT: Jessica Tam

First AI + Education Summit is an international push for “AI fluency”

• More news on MIT News homepage →

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

• Map (opens in new window)
• Events (opens in new window)
• People (opens in new window)
• Careers (opens in new window)
• Accessibility
• Social Media Hub
• MIT on Facebook
• MIT on YouTube
• MIT on Instagram

New autism interventions could spring from Israeli research

Unique database of medical, behavioral and genetic data can help identify best diagnosis and treatment approaches for people on the spectrum..

My mom, a daycare teacher, recently told me that over the past decade she and her colleagues have been seeing a gradual increase in children who exhibit behavior associated with autism . Many of these children are later diagnosed with the neurodevelopmental disorder.

“It could be that what your mother and her colleagues are seeing are characteristics that the children exhibited in the past; [teachers] just weren’t as aware of them as they are now,” Idan Menashe , director of Israel’s national autism research center, tells ISRAEL21c. 

Indeed, an Israeli study published last January revealed that between 2017 and 2021, toddlers up to three years old were four times more likely to be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) than in the past. Children aged four and older were twice as likely to be diagnosed. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ), 1 in 36 children in the United States was diagnosed with autism in 2020, compared to 1 in 150 children in 2000. 

“The increase in new diagnoses stems from an increase in awareness among parents and educators, and improved diagnostic capabilities,” says Menashe, adding there’s no evidence that more autistic people are being born as time goes on. 

“Additionally, today many adults who have never been diagnosed, and no one really suspected they should be, receive the autism diagnosis,” he adds.  

What is now classified as ASD used to be split into three different neurodevelopmental conditions: autism, Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). 

On the spectrum

Tesla founder Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg both have described themselves as being on the autism spectrum. 

So, is autism that big a deal if those diagnosed with it can go on to become wildly successful? 

Menashe notes that although autism is primarily characterized by repetitive actions and impaired social functioning, the disorder’s wide range of physical and cognitive symptoms affect everyone differently. 

“All of us are neurodivergent in some way; autism actually has many positive characteristics that make a person unique,” he says. 

“However, many autistic people have co-occurring disorders, or symptoms that complicate their lives, like sensory hypersensitivity or insomnia.” 

Eliminating unwanted traits?

According to Menashe, scientists are studying the possibility of genetically removing ASD’s undesirable traits.

“Today, we can identify some of the genes that cause autism; the research is now focused on learning their molecular mechanisms, better understanding of which could lead to development of new treatments or genetic intervention methods.”

Menashe says the national center is conducting exome sequencing — a type of genetic sequencing that could explain what may be causing symptoms or a disease — on autistic children and their immediate family members.

But what makes the Israeli research center extraordinary internationally is its extensive database, which provides much more information beyond genetics.

“We can cross-reference medical, behavioral and genetic records. That’s something that practically doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” he says.

How it all began 

Menashe has a doctorate in genetic epidemiology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and is a lecturer at the Department of Public Health and Faculty of Health Sciences in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). 

He became interested in autism while working at an American medical startup. He returned to Israel and entered academia with the goal of advancing autism research here. 

Menashe linked up with Prof. Gal Meiri from the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, who at the time was the primary doctor for autism diagnosis in Israel’s south; and Ilan Dinstein , a professor in the psychology and cognitive and brain sciences departments at BGU.  

In 2015, the three established a database of children diagnosed with autism and their immediate family members. 

This database — the first in Israel, and among the first of its kind in the world — includes behavioral assessments, audio and video recordings, interviews and questionnaires, birth and medical records, MRI scans, genetic evaluations and biological samples. 

The center 

Their initiative eventually received funding from Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology , and in 2018 BGU and Soroka opened the national center.

It is now officially called the Azrieli National Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research , following a $13 million donation from the Azrieli Foundation in 2021 that enabled the addition of secondary centers across Israel.

“Compared to similar centers [in other countries], ours is truly unique; we begin collecting data from before the child is even diagnosed, and monitor their behavioral development to see which treatments work and which don’t,” Menashe explains.

The center’s study two years ago revealed that children diagnosed before 2.5 years of age were three times more likely to exhibit considerable improvements in the core social symptoms of autism in comparison to children diagnosed at later ages.

“In Israel, the average age of ASD diagnosis is three years old, thanks to the government system of development monitoring [of babies] at family health clinics. For comparison, in the US the average diagnosis age is six to seven years old,” Menashe notes. 

The center also offers various workshops and seminars to help autistic individuals integrate into society. Its next research conference for families and communities is scheduled for October 30.

For more information about the work of the center, click here . 

More on Health

Fighting for Israel's truth

We cover what makes life in israel so special — it's people. a non-profit organization, israel21c's team of journalists are committed to telling stories that humanize israelis and show their positive impact on our world. you can bring these stories to life by making a donation of $6/month. .

Jason Harris

Executive director.

• / Ben-Gurion University
• / Soroka Medical Center

More on Autism

You can help us tell Israel's story better!

In an era rife with political division, israel21c stands apart — we place people over politics , and introduce readers to life in israel beyond salacious headlines. we maintain a paywall-free platform so our journalists can share the positive impact israelis have on our world. that's because of people like you . if you believe more people should hear these stories, then please make a gift today and support our work..

• PhD Studentship
• Research Assistant

UVA research cracks the autism code, making the neurodivergent brain visible

A multi-university research team co-led by University of Virginia engineering professor Gustavo K. Rohde has developed a system that can spot genetic markers of autism in brain images with 89 to 95% accuracy.

Credit: Rohde Lab, University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science

Their findings suggest doctors may one day see, classify and treat autism and related neurological conditions with this method, without having to rely on, or wait for, behavioral cues. And that means this truly personalized medicine could result in earlier interventions.

“Autism is traditionally diagnosed behaviorally but has a strong genetic basis. A genetics-first approach could transform understanding and treatment of autism,” the researchers wrote in a paper published June 12 in the journal Science Advances .

Rohde, a professor of biomedical and electrical and computer engineering, collaborated with researchers from the University of California San Franscisco and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including Shinjini Kundu, Rohde’s former Ph.D. student and first author of the paper.

While working in Rohde’s lab, Kundu — now a physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital — helped develop a generative computer modeling technique called transport-based morphometry, or TBM, which is at the heart of the team’s approach.

Using a novel mathematical modeling technique, their system reveals brain structure patterns that predict variations in certain regions of the individual’s genetic code — a phenomenon called “copy number variations,” in which segments of the code are deleted or duplicated. These variations are linked to autism.

TBM allows the researchers to distinguish normal biological variations in brain structure from those associated with the deletions or duplications.

“Some copy number variations are known to be associated with autism, but their link to brain morphology — in other words, how different types of brain tissues such as gray or white matter, are arranged in our brain — is not well known,” Rohde said. “Finding out how CNV relates to brain tissue morphology is an important first step in understanding autism’s biological basis.”

How TBM Cracks the Code

Transport-based morphometry is different from other machine learning image analysis models because the mathematical models are based on mass transport — the movement of molecules such as proteins, nutrients and gases in and out of cells and tissues. “Morphometry” refers to measuring and quantifying the biological forms created by these processes.

Most machine learning methods, Rohde said, have little or no relation to the biophysical processes that generated the data. They rely instead on recognizing patterns to identify anomalies.

But Rohde’s approach uses mathematical equations to extract the mass transport information from medical images, creating new images for visualization and further analysis.

Then, using a different set of mathematical methods, the system parses information associated with autism-linked CNV variations from other “normal” genetic variations that do not lead to disease or neurological disorders — what the researchers call “confounding sources of variability.”

These sources previously prevented researchers from understanding the “gene-brain-behavior” relationship, effectively limiting care providers to behavior-based diagnoses and treatments.

According to Forbes magazine, 90% of medical data is in the form of imaging, which we don’t have the means to unlock. Rohde believes TBM is the skeleton key.

“As such, major discoveries from such vast amounts of data may lie ahead if we utilize more appropriate mathematical models to extract such information.”

The researchers used data from participants in the Simons Variation in Individuals Project, a group of subjects with the autism-linked genetic variation.

Control-set subjects were recruited from other clinical settings and matched for age, sex, handedness and non-verbal IQ while excluding those with related neurological disorders or family histories.

“We hope that the findings, the ability to identify localized changes in brain morphology linked to copy number variations, could point to brain regions and eventually mechanisms that can be leveraged for therapies,” Rohde said.

Publication

Discovering the gene-brain-behavior link in autism via generative machine learning was published June 12, 2024, in Science Advances .

Additional co-authors are Haris Sair of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Elliott H. Sherr and Pratik Mukherjee of the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Radiology.

The research received funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Radiological Society of North America and the Simons Variation in Individuals Foundation.

Science Advances

10.1126/sciadv.adl5307

Article Title

Discovering the gene-brain-behavior link in autism via generative machine learning

Article Publication Date

12-Jun-2024

Related Posts

Finding new targets for blocking chronic hepatitis, jmir medical informatics is inviting submissions for a new theme issue titled: “advancing digital health: real-world implementation and strategic insights from industry-driven innovation”, a breakthrough in diagnosing hydrocephalus: multimodality approaches enhance accuracy and reduce costs, borderzone breakthrough: a new source of cardiac inflammation, popular news, probiotics during pregnancy shown to help moms and babies, nyu abu dhabi researchers identify unique survival strategies adopted by fish in the world’s warmest waters, ubc super-black wood can improve telescopes, optical devices and consumer goods, americans face disparities in exposure to tobacco on streaming platforms.

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Recent News

Princeton graduate student wins prestigious plasma physics award, advancement in particle physics: new encoding mechanism unveiled, novel motion simulator reveals key role of air flow in rodent navigation.

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Remember Me

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

• Home Page 1
• Home Page 2

• Alzheimer's disease & dementia
• Arthritis & Rheumatism
• Attention deficit disorders
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Biomedical technology
• Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
• Endocrinology & Metabolism
• Gastroenterology
• Gerontology & Geriatrics
• Health informatics
• Inflammatory disorders
• Medical economics
• Medical research
• Medications
• Neuroscience
• Obstetrics & gynaecology
• Oncology & Cancer
• Ophthalmology
• Overweight & Obesity
• Parkinson's & Movement disorders
• Psychology & Psychiatry
• Radiology & Imaging
• Sleep disorders
• Sports medicine & Kinesiology
• Vaccination
• Breast cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Colon cancer
• Coronary artery disease
• Heart attack
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Kidney disease
• Lung cancer
• Multiple sclerosis
• Myocardial infarction
• Ovarian cancer
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Schizophrenia
• Skin cancer
• Type 2 diabetes
• Full List »

share this!

August 28, 2024

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

peer-reviewed publication

trusted source

Collaborative research cracks the autism code, making the neurodivergent brain visible

by Jennifer McManamay, University of Virginia

A multi-university research team co-led by University of Virginia engineering professor Gustavo K. Rohde has developed a system that can spot genetic markers of autism in brain images with 89 to 95% accuracy.

Their findings suggest that doctors may one day see, classify and treat autism and related neurological conditions with this method, without having to rely on or wait for behavioral cues. And that means this truly personalized medicine could result in earlier interventions.

"Autism is traditionally diagnosed behaviorally but has a strong genetic basis. A genetics-first approach could transform understanding and treatment of autism," the researchers wrote in a paper published in the journal Science Advances .

Rohde, a professor of biomedical and electrical and computer engineering, collaborated with researchers from the University of California San Francisco and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including Shinjini Kundu, Rohde's former Ph.D. student and first author of the paper.

While working in Rohde's lab, Kundu—now a physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital—helped develop a generative computer modeling technique called transport-based morphometry, or TBM, which is at the heart of the team's approach.

Using a novel mathematical modeling technique, their system reveals brain structure patterns that predict variations in certain regions of the individual's genetic code—a phenomenon called "copy number variations," in which segments of the code are deleted or duplicated. These variations are linked to autism.

TBM allows the researchers to distinguish normal biological variations in brain structure from those associated with the deletions or duplications.

"Some copy number variations are known to be associated with autism, but their link to brain morphology—in other words, how different types of brain tissues, such as gray or white matter , are arranged in our brain—is not well known," Rohde said. "Finding out how CNV relates to brain tissue morphology is an important first step in understanding autism's biological basis."

How TBM cracks the code

Transport-based morphometry is different from other machine-learning image analysis models because the mathematical models are based on mass transport—the movement of molecules such as proteins, nutrients and gases in and out of cells and tissues. "Morphometry" refers to measuring and quantifying the biological forms created by these processes.

Most machine learning methods, Rohde said, have little or no relation to the biophysical processes that generate the data. They rely instead on recognizing patterns to identify anomalies.

But Rohde's approach uses mathematical equations to extract the mass transport information from medical images, creating new images for visualization and further analysis.

Then, using a different set of mathematical methods, the system parses information associated with autism-linked CNV variations from other "normal" genetic variations that do not lead to disease or neurological disorders—what the researchers call "confounding sources of variability."

These sources previously prevented researchers from understanding the "gene-brain-behavior" relationship, effectively limiting care providers to behavior-based diagnoses and treatments.

According to Forbes magazine, 90% of medical data is in the form of imaging, which we don't have the means to unlock. Rohde believes TBM is the skeleton key.

"As such, major discoveries from such vast amounts of data may lie ahead if we utilize more appropriate mathematical models to extract such information."

The researchers used data from participants in the Simons Variation in Individuals Project, a group of subjects with the autism-linked genetic variation.

Control-set subjects were recruited from other clinical settings and matched for age, sex, handedness and non-verbal IQ while excluding those with related neurological disorders or family histories.

"We hope that the findings, the ability to identify localized changes in brain morphology linked to copy number variations, could point to brain regions and eventually mechanisms that can be leveraged for therapies," Rohde said.

Additional co-authors are Haris Sair of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Elliott H. Sherr and Pratik Mukherjee of the University of California San Francisco's Department of Radiology.

Explore further

Feedback to editors

High-resolution brain tumor mapping reveals possible reason why some patients don't respond to new drug

55 minutes ago

Identifying key markers in pancreatic cancer progression using a new analysis pipeline

Combo immunotherapy produces distinct waves of cancer-fighting T cells with each dose

2 hours ago

Gene therapy gets a turbo boost from researchers

Mechanical stress in the borderzone: A new source of cardiac inflammation

Clinical trial assesses the efficacy of suvorexant in reducing delirium in older adults

Brain study suggests regions that grew the most during evolution are most susceptible to aging

3 hours ago

VR headsets could be life changing for people with intellectual disability

Scientists discover how the body's killer cells attack cancer

Crucial role of JUN protein in restraining liver cancer growth discovered

Related stories.

Study connects genetic risk for autism to changes observed in the brain

May 24, 2024

Study identifies new metric for diagnosing autism

Apr 17, 2024

Artificial intelligence tool detects sex-related differences in brain structure

May 14, 2024

Genetic factors contributing to connection issues for white matter in the human brain discovered

Feb 20, 2023

Researchers identify altered functional brain connectivity in autism subtypes

Dec 5, 2023

Study links organization of neurotypical brains to genes involved in autism and schizophrenia

May 11, 2024

Recommended for you

Oncoprotein activity increases prostate cancer progression, finds study

Epigenetics blood markers can help understand dementia risk

23 hours ago

Autistic traits, behavioral problems in 7-year-olds linked with gender nonconforming play

A cellular community in the brain drives Alzheimer's disease, large-scale analysis reveals

Aug 28, 2024

Let us know if there is a problem with our content

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Medical Xpress in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

Study at Cambridge

About the university, research at cambridge.

• For Cambridge students
• For our researchers
• Business and enterprise
• Colleges and Departments
• Email and phone search
• Give to Cambridge
• Museums and collections
• Events and open days
• Fees and finance
• Postgraduate courses
• How to apply
• Fees and funding
• Postgraduate events
• International students
• Continuing education
• Executive and professional education
• Courses in education
• How the University and Colleges work
• Visiting the University
• Annual reports
• Equality and diversity
• A global university
• Public engagement

10,000 autistic people to take part in the UK’s largest study of autism

• Research home
• About research overview
• Animal research overview
• Overseeing animal research overview
• The Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body
• Animal welfare and ethics
• Report on the allegations and matters raised in the BUAV report
• What types of animal do we use? overview
• Guinea pigs
• Equine species
• Naked mole-rats
• Non-human primates (marmosets)
• Other birds
• Non-technical summaries
• Animal Welfare Policy
• Alternatives to animal use
• Further information
• Funding Agency Committee Members
• Research integrity
• Horizons magazine
• Strategic Initiatives & Networks
• Nobel Prize
• Interdisciplinary Research Centres
• Open access
• Energy sector partnerships
• Podcasts overview
• S2 ep1: What is the future?
• S2 ep2: What did the future look like in the past?
• S2 ep3: What is the future of wellbeing?
• S2 ep4 What would a more just future look like?

An ambitious new research project, Spectrum 10K, launches today and will recruit 10,000 autistic individuals, as well as their relatives, living in the UK.

Spectrum 10K is led by researchers at the world-leading Autism Research Centre (ARC), the University of Cambridge, together with the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and will study how biological and environmental factors impact on the wellbeing of autistic individuals.

In the UK, there are approximately 700,000 autistic individuals. The level of support needed by autistic individuals varies considerably. Many autistic people have additional physical health conditions such as epilepsy, or mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression.

It is unclear what gives rise to the diversity within the autism spectrum or why some autistic people have better outcomes than others. The project aims to answer this question and to identify what support works best for each individual.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, leading Spectrum 10K and Director of the ARC, explained: “There is an urgent need to better understand the wellbeing of autistic individuals. Spectrum 10K hopes to answer questions such as why some autistic people have epilepsy or poor mental health outcomes and others do not.”

Individuals of all ages, genders, ethnicities and intellectual capacities will take part in Spectrum 10K. Eligible participants join by completing an online questionnaire and providing a DNA saliva sample by post. Autistic participants involved in Spectrum 10K can also invite their biological relatives (autistic or otherwise) to participate. Information collected from the questionnaire and DNA saliva sample, and information from health records will be used to increase knowledge and understanding of wellbeing in autism.

Dr James Cusack, CEO of the autism research charity Autistica and an autistic person, said: “We are delighted to support Spectrum 10K. This project enables autistic people to participate in and shape autism research to build a future where support is tailored to every individual’s needs.”

The Spectrum 10K team views autism as an example of neurodiversity and is opposed to eugenics or looking for a cure for preventing or eradicating autism itself.  Instead, their research aims to identify types of support and treatment which alleviate unwanted symptoms and co-occurring conditions that cause autistic people distress.

The Spectrum 10K team collaborates with an Advisory Panel consisting of autistic individuals, parents of autistic children, clinicians, and autism charity representatives to ensure Spectrum 10K is designed in a way that best serves the autistic community. 27 specialist NHS sites around the UK are also helping with recruitment for Spectrum 10K.

Dr Venkat Reddy, Consultant Neurodevelopmental Paediatrician in the Community Child Health Services at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: “There is a need to conduct further research into autism and co-occurring conditions to enable researchers and clinicians to build a better understanding of autism. I would encourage autistic individuals and their families to consider taking part in Spectrum 10K.”

Chris Packham, naturalist and TV presenter who is also autistic, said: “I’m honoured to be an ambassador of Spectrum 10K because I believe in the value of science to inform the support services that autistic kids and adults will need.”

Paddy McGuinness, actor, comedian, television presenter, and father of three autistic children, said: “As a parent of three autistic children, I am really excited to support Spectrum 10K. This research is important to help us understand what makes every autistic person different, and how best to support them.”

Dr Anna and Alastair Gadney, parents of a teenager with autism and learning difficulties: “We have been exploring, over many years, how to implement the best support for our son. We wholeheartedly endorse Spectrum 10K and hope our involvement can help increase understanding of autism and in-turn support many families out there.”

Recruitment for Spectrum 10K is now open. Autistic children under the age of 16 must be registered by their parent or legal guardian. Autistic adults who lack the capacity to consent by themselves must be registered by a carer/or family member. To register, participants should visit www.spectrum10k.org

Read this next

One in four patients in vegetative or minimally conscious state able to perform cognitive tasks, study finds

Advanced MRI scans help identify one in three concussion patients with ‘hidden disease’

‘Far from clear’ new Alzheimer’s drugs will make a difference at a population level, say researchers

How 'superstar species' solve healthier ageing and cancer resistance

Spectrum 10k image

Credit: Spectrum 10k

Search research

Sign up to receive our weekly research email.

Our selection of the week's biggest Cambridge research news sent directly to your inbox. Enter your email address, confirm you're happy to receive our emails and then select 'Subscribe'.

I wish to receive a weekly Cambridge research news summary by email.

The University of Cambridge will use your email address to send you our weekly research news email. We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. Please read our email privacy notice for details.

• Spotlight on neuroscience
• Simon Baron-Cohen
• School of Clinical Medicine
• Autism Research Centre
• Department of Psychiatry
• Trinity College

Related organisations

• Wellcome Sanger Institute
• University of California Los Angeles

Connect with us

© 2024 University of Cambridge

• Contact the University
• Accessibility statement
• Freedom of information
• Privacy policy and cookies
• Statement on Modern Slavery
• Terms and conditions
• University A-Z
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
• Cambridge University Press & Assessment
• Research news
• About research at Cambridge
• Spotlight on...

Autism CRC 2024 Research Awards

We are proud to announce nominations for the annual  Autism CRC Awards for Achievement in Autism Research are now open until 1 October 2024.  

The awards recognise and celebrate research and development initiatives that are exemplary of Autism CRC’s vision, mission and values.

The awards are open to all organisations and researchers undertaking  quality research projects related to autism, regardless of location or affiliation with Autism CRC.  The awards recognise achievements in inclusive research practice and the translation of autism research into practice, products, policy and programs that benefit the autistic and broader autism communities.

You can find out more about last year's recipients from our news page . 

Award categories and evaluation criteria

Inclusive research practice.

• The research is methodologically sound
• The research is based on community need, and is impactful or has potential for impact
• Autistic individuals and other relevant end-users* have been appropriately engaged in key aspects of the design, conduct, evaluation and reporting of the research.

Translation of autism research

• The translated outputs are founded in evidence from research
• The outputs have delivered demonstrated benefits and evidenced impact
• The translation process involved co-production and appropriate engagement of end-users* in design and delivery

*end-users are those who will directly apply and/or directly benefit from the output, outcome or results of the project.

Groundbreaking Study on Lymph Node Excision Advances HIV Cure Research

Date: August 28, 2024 By: Nick Kolev

Researchers at the Ndhlovu Lab , part of the Ragon Institute and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), have completed a significant study on the safety and practicality of lymph node excisions for HIV cure research in South Africa. The study — led by Ragon faculty member Zaza Ndhlovu, PhD, and published in  Frontiers in Immunology  — provides critical insights into how these procedures can advance our understanding of HIV reservoirs. HIV reservoirs are groups of HIV-infected cells that can remain latent within the body for months or years but can be reactivated if a patient’s treatment with antiretroviral therapy (ART) is stopped.

The Ndhlovu Lab paper, titled “Safety and practicality of an excisional lymph node study driving HIV cure research in South Africa,” discusses how the researchers successfully conducted 181 lymph node excisions since 2015. These procedures were minimally invasive and performed under local anesthesia, minimizing risk and discomfort for the participants. The small incisions healed within a week, and most participants were able to resume normal activities the following day. The study reported only a 5.5% occurrence of minor adverse events, such as swelling or prolonged wound healing, all of which were resolved within two weeks.

This study is particularly significant because lymph nodes are critical sites where HIV persists in the body, even during ART. By obtaining lymph node tissues, researchers can better understand the dynamics of HIV reservoirs and immune responses within these tissues. This understanding is crucial for developing strategies to eliminate these reservoirs and achieve a functional cure for HIV.

Researchers at the Ndhlovu Lab, part of the Ragon Institute and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), have completed a significant study on the safety and practicality of lymph node excisions for HIV cure research in South Africa.

“A Two-Way Opportunity” — An Interview with Youry Kim, A Visiting Doherty Institute Exchange Fellow from Australia

We spoke to Kim to learn more about her background, her research journey, and her experiences at the Ragon Institute over the past few months.

A common fatty acid may help restore healthy vaginal bacteria after infection

Ragon and Broad collaboration uncovers potential new approach to treating Bacterial Vaginosis

Study reveals a new target for universal treatment for autoimmune diseases

• Download PDF Copy

More than two decades ago, a research team in the lab of David Hafler, a Yale researcher who at the time was at Harvard, discovered a type of T cell in humans that suppresses the immune system; they later found that these so-called regulatory T cells , when defective, are an underlying cause of autoimmune disease , specifically multiple sclerosis (MS). For many years, however, the mechanism behind this dysfunction has remained unclear.

In a new Yale-led study, a team of researchers finds that this loss of immune regulation is triggered by an increase in PRDM1-S, a protein involved in immune function, triggering a dynamic interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors, including high salt uptake.

The findings, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine , also reveal a new target for a universal treatment for human autoimmune disease.

The research was led by Tomokazu Sumida, an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), and Hafler, the William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor of Neurology and professor of immunobiology at Yale.

"These experiments reveal a key underlying mechanism for the loss of immune regulation in MS and likely other autoimmune diseases," said Hafler, who is also chair of Yale's Department of Neurology. "They also add mechanistic insight into how Treg [regulatory T cells] dysfunction occurs in human autoimmune diseases."

Autoimmune diseases, among the most common disorders of young adults, are known to be affected by genetic and environmental factors, including vitamin D deficiency and fatty acids. In an earlier study, Sumida and Hafler found that high levels of salt also contribute to the development of multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Specifically, they observed that high salt induces inflammation in a type of immune cell known as CD4 T cells, while also causing a loss of regulatory T cell function. This, they found, is mediated by a salt-sensitive kinase, or enzyme critical for cell signaling, known as SGK-1.

For the new study, researchers used RNA sequencing to compare gene expression in patients with MS with expression in healthy individuals. In patients with MS, the researchers identified upregulation, or increased expression, of a gene called PRDM1-S (primate-specific transcription factor), also known as BLIMP-1, which is involved in regulating immune function.

Surprisingly, PRDM1-S induced increased expression of the salt-sensitive SGK-1 enzyme, leading to disruption of regulatory T cells, the researchers found. Moreover, they found similar overexpression of PRDM1-S in other autoimmune diseases, suggesting that it may be a common feature of regulatory T cell dysfunction.

Based on these insights, we are now developing drugs that can target and decrease expression of PRDM1-S in regulatory T cells. And we have initiated collaborations with other Yale researchers using novel computational methods to increase the function of regulatory T cells to develop new approaches that will work across human autoimmune diseases." Tomokazu Sumida, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine

The study was done with Bradley Bernstein and Manolis Kellis, longtime collaborators of Hafler from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and several other research institutions.

Other authors from the Yale lab include neurologist Matthew R. Lincoln, and post-graduate research assistants Alice Yi, Helen Stillwell, and Greta Leissa.

Yale University

Sumida, T. S.,  et al.  (2024) An autoimmune transcriptional circuit drives FOXP3 + regulatory T cell dysfunction .   Science Translational Medicine . doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adp1720 .

Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Medical Condition News

Tags: Autoimmune Disease , CD4 , Cell , Cell Signaling , Central Nervous System , Drugs , Enzyme , Fatty Acids , Gene , Gene Expression , Genetic , Immune System , Inflammation , Kinase , Medicine , Multiple Sclerosis , Nervous System , Neurology , Protein , Research , RNA , RNA Sequencing , Sclerosis , Transcription , Vitamin D , Vitamin D Deficiency

Suggested Reading

Cancel reply to comment

• Trending Stories
• Latest Interviews
• Top Health Articles

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Lindsey Hiebert and James Amugsi

In this interview, we explore global and local efforts to combat viral hepatitis with Lindsey Hiebert, Deputy Director of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE), and James Amugsi, a Mandela Washington Fellow and Physician Assistant at Sandema Hospital in Ghana. Together, they provide valuable insights into the challenges, successes, and the importance of partnerships in the fight against hepatitis.

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

In this interview conducted at Pittcon 2024, we spoke to Professor John Yates about capturing cardiomyocyte cell-to-cell heterogeneity via shotgun top-down proteomics.

A Discussion with Hologic’s Tim Simpson on the Future of Cervical Cancer Screening

Tim Simpson

Hologic’s Tim Simpson Discusses the Future of Cervical Cancer Screening.

Latest News

Newsletters you may be interested in

Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant

Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.

A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.

• Use of “Azthena” is subject to the terms and conditions of use as set out by OpenAI .
• Content provided on any AZoNetwork sites are subject to the site Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy .
• Large Language Models can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.

Great. Ask your question.

Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms .

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions .

Provide Feedback