Proteins and Autism Article
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 12:34 am
I was about to say there isn't much news in that article, untill this paragraph. I'm curious about the usefulness in practical sense.Two proteins called SHANK and TSC1, which are involved in very different autism-related syndromes that are not thought to be related, proved to be connected by 21 other proteins. Additionally, when the researchers checked their network against the DNA of patients with nonsyndromic, or "stand-alone," autism, they found abnormalities involving three of the network genes. Both findings suggest that different types of autism may share a common pathway even when they occur in distinct syndromes or alone—something that wasn't clear just from looking at the genes
This is nice, but afaik environment was already pretty much ruled out."Interactomes like this one make the whole debate of genes versus the environment a lot more sophisticated," adds Vidal, who was not involved in the current study and who mapped a network involved in breast cancer susceptibility in 2007. "In understanding how genes lead to disease, interactomes give us the best of both worlds."
Edit ( very very late
)I made this post because of personal fear, not because it's actually 100%. I am diagnosed with ASD but no narrowed down diagnosis has been made yet, my son who is 4 is also tested and shows signs potentially indication an autism spectrum disorder but not enough to be classified as such. My fear is that my disorder might contribute to my son to developing (into?) a bap ( broader autism phenotype ). So actually, yes I'm very aware that there can be environmental influences, and it scares the heck out of me. I was hoping someone would actually say I was right and environmental influences are to be neglected. Sorry for editing this in so late, I been considering making this edit since I made the post but as I hope everyone will understand, admitting in public my fear of possibly being a negative factor in my son's development ( in such manner that it could lead to at least a bap classification ) takes courage I lacked.