Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004352 (autism)
 32,579 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Sixty families ascertained through a single proband, has helped to better define infantile autism as a heterogeneous group of disorders. Forty four patients showed a characteristic facio- auricular dysplasia. Twenty four of these, showed increased pyruvate and lactate and laboratory findings of metabolic acidosis i.e., anion gap above 18 mEq/L or serum bicarbonate below 21 mEq/L but only nine of these probands demonstrated reduction of plasma bicarbonate below 18 mEq/lt. Plasma amino acids in 17 probands and matched controls showed increased taurine with the rest of amino acids significantly (p less than 0.05) below the control level. Glutamate and aspartate were also significantly elevated (p less than 0.05; Student t-test). Segregation analysis in thirty four of these families which linked through at least one ancestral family name, suggested autosomal recessive inheritance (p = 0.20). Three out of eight probands who received megadoses of pyridoxine (Vitamin B6), subjectively gained in language abilities, affectivity and response to behavior modification therapy. Five autistic patients proved to have clinically defined syndromes: two with the Martin-Bell syndrome, and three girls affected respectively with the Rett syndrome, phenylketonuria and dicarboxylic aciduria.
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PMID:[Clinical heterogeneity of the autistic syndrome: a study of 60 families]. 139 Oct 74

Many factors are reported to be involved in the complex pathophysiological processes of autism, suggesting that there is considerable variability in the manifestations of this disease. Several interventions are used to treat this disorder. Among them, vitamin B6 is widely used to treat the symptoms observed in autism. Vitamin B6 is beneficial for about half of autistic individuals in decreasing behavioral problems. However, until now, it remains unknown why vitamin B6 is effective for this disease. Although the exact pathogenesis is not defined, it is evident that certain neurotransmitter systems are impaired in the brains of autistic patients, causing the symptoms observed in the disease. In fact, impairment of many neurotransmitter systems has been reported, including GABA, serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenalin. Furthermore, vitamin B6 is important for the synthesis of many neurotransmitters, including GABA, serotonin, dopamine, noradrenalin, histamine, glycine, and d-serine, indicating that vitamin B6 supplementation may enhance many neurotransmitter systems. Thus, vitamin B6 supplementation can treat the impaired neurotransmitter systems in a given patient, even if the actual impaired neurotransmitter systems are not defined in that patient.
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PMID:Why is vitamin B6 effective in alleviating the symptoms of autism? 2968 87