April 10, 2023
- Don’t miss TACA’s recent “Moving Autism Forward” interview with Robert Naviaux, M.D., the co-director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Naviaux is the lead investigator for the Suramin study for children with autism. In the interview, Dr. Naviaux will give an update on the promising drug’s next phases of research.
- A recent zebrafish study has concluded that embryonic exposure to mercury chloride (HgCl2) resulted in social abnormalities, impaired color preference, reduced eye structures, and impaired microridge formation in the sea creature. The study’s authors suggest that defective microridges inside the eye could be used to study mercury toxicity, affecting color preference and social responses.
- A new systematic review has concluded that suicidality is highly prevalent in autistic and possibly autistic people without co-occurring intellectual disability. Prevalence estimates of suicidal ideation were lower for studies conducted in Asia but higher in transgender or gender non-conforming samples and when using self-report. The review also discovered that possibly autistic individuals require more attention in clinical and research considerations to further understand and prevent suicide in both groups.
- Recent research has discovered that cannabidiol (CBD) can reduce epileptic seizures in treatment-resistant patients by blocking a positive feedback loop in which seizures increase signaling between a fatty molecule called LPI and a receptor called GPR55, in turn encouraging more seizures. This work could influence the development of new epilepsy therapies or medications that might inhibit LPI production in nerve cells. The authors suggest that LPI may also serve as a biomarker of seizures or a predictor of clinical responsiveness to CBD.
- According to a new Iranian study, toddlers with autism who spend more time watching screens associated with either foreground (media designed specifically for children) or background (media not specifically designed for children) had higher autism symptom severity scores and exhibited more repetitive behaviors. This research also demonstrated that higher foreground and background screen time, as well as higher parent-rated symptoms of ASD, are associated with a shorter time of social interaction. However, the authors point out that it is possible that neuronal developmental characteristics, a child’s preferences for objects, a child’s preference for non-social coping styles, and parents’ parenting and coping styles with the social behavior of a child with ASD might independently and reciprocally increase a child’s ASD symptom severity. Either way, the authors suggest that exposure of young children to excessive screen time, regardless of the type of media, is a serious developmental mistake.
