'Autistic' mice created – and treated

A new strain of mice engineered to lack a gene with links to autism displays many of the hallmarks of the condition. It also responds to a drug in the same way as people with autism, which might open the way to new therapies for such people.

It's not the first mouse strain to have symptoms of autism, and previous ones have already been useful models for studying the condition. Daniel Geschwind at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues tried a fresh approach, however. Rather than simply examining existing strains to identify mice with autistic-like behaviour, they engineered mice to lack a gene called Cntnap2, which had already been implicated in autism. Cntnap2 is the largest gene on the genome, clocking in at 2.5 million bases, and is responsible for regulating brain circuits involved in language and speech.

Geschwind was initially sceptical that the modified mice would display the behaviour typical of autism in humans, because the neural pathways in the two species are thought to be fairly different. "One has to be cautious," he says. "What is an autistic mouse going to look like?"

Surprisingly, he says, it turns out to be a lot like a human with autism. "Knockout" mice lacking the gene were less vocal than their genetically unaltered littermates, and less social as well. They also showed repetitive behaviour such as grooming which was "wild almost to the point of self-injury", says Geschwind. These three symptoms are the ones normally used to diagnose autism in humans.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20984-autistic-mice-created--and-treated.html

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And no vaccines were used in giving these mice autism. Why?

BECAUSE VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM, THAT'S WHY!

I did poorly in it in school, but I like it in my old age!

+1!

of the condition. This doesn't prove that ALL mice, much less all humans, with autism symptoms have a defective CNtnap2 gene. Scientists agree that genetics ALONE cannot account for all cases of autism. They know this because not all identical twins with autism have a twin with the same condition-- even though they share the same genes and uterine environment. They are still trying to study which people are autistic because of their genes, which because of environmental insults, and which because of an interaction between the two.

Autism is a syndrome -- i.e., a collection of symptoms. Hannah Poling's doctors say she has the syndrome, and it was the result of an underlying genetic condition that was triggered by her vaccines. That's why the Vaccine Court awarded her damages. In her case, it was the interaction of her physiology and multiple vaccines on one day that brought on the autism. (Her mother has the same genes and is perfectly normal.)

Thanks so much.

Maybe the mice got contact vaccinated.

If not, it pretty much invalidates the whole damn thing.

Asperger's Syndrome. Growing up, I knew he was different from other kids, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. I just knew he was different.

When he was 18, and half way through his senior year of high school, a friend said, "You know Sheila, I think he may have Asperger's. You should look it up on the internet." I did, and he was pretty classic.

Even though there are times when I'm sad about his limitations, he's actually quite content with the way he is, and has expressed to me that he does not want to be "normal".

I know this is a very personal decision, but I've grown to appreciate him for exactly what he is. He's 28 now, and has as good a life as just about anyone has. He's working for an engineering firm doing CAD (Computer Aided Design) and has a good life.

As a person whose health was damaged by them, your giant leap to a conclusion fails to impress.