An autism brain signature?

A genome-wide analysis of the RNA in the brains of individuals with autism reveals consistent patterns of abnormal gene expression and implicates several molecular pathways in the pathology of autism.

The autism awareness ribbon is designed to reflect the complexity and diversity of autism. Scientists now believe common molecular pathways may underlie the disease. Credit: linkurl:Wikimedia Commons;http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autism_Awareness_Ribbon.png

The research, published today in linkurl:Nature,;http://www.nature.com/nature suggests that shared molecular pathways underlie autism, a notoriously heterogeneous disease, which may point the way to biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the disease."Here, using an unbiased genome-wide scanning method looking at the RNA rather than the DNA, we clearly identify these two major processes going on that are common to a majority of autism brains," said senior author linkurl:Daniel Geschwind;http://geschwindlab.neurology.ucla.edu/ of the University of California, Los Angeles."This is really well done study, with appropriate sample sizes and well thought through," said linkurl:Karoly Mirnics,;http://mirnicslab.vanderbilt.edu/mirnicslab/ a...