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

We have previously shown that pharmacological blockade of the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) during the neonatal period in rats produces behavioral features of developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we show that social interaction deficits in this model are reversed by the atypical antipsychotic clozapine given in the adulthood. In addition, we analyzed the mRNA expression of three neuronal receptors potentially involved in the etiology of disorders of the autism spectrum. Rats were injected with the GRPR antagonist RC-3095 or saline (SAL) from postnatal days 1-10, and tested for social behavior and recognition memory in the adulthood. One hour prior to the behavioral testing, rats were given a systemic injection of clozapine or saline. The mRNA expression of the NR1 subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and GRPR was measured in the hippocampus and cortex of a separate set of rats given RC-3095 or SAL neonatally. Rats given neonatal RC-3095 showed decreased social interaction and impaired object recognition memory. Clozapine rescued the social interaction impairment. Neonatal treatment with RC-3095 also resulted in dose-dependent decreases in the expression of GRPR, NR1, and EGFR in the cortex, whereas all three receptor mRNAs were increased in the hippocampus in rats treated with the lower dose of RC-3095. The results contribute to further validate the novel rat model of neurodevelopmental disorders induced by GRPR blockade, and shows alterations in the expression of neuronal receptors in this model.
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PMID:Rescue of social behavior impairment by clozapine and alterations in the expression of neuronal receptors in a rat model of neurodevelopmental impairment induced by GRPR blockade. 2184 57

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder in humans characterized by complex behavioral deficits, including intellectual disability, impaired social interactions, and hyperactivity. ASD exhibits a strong genetic component with underlying multigene interactions. Candidate gene studies have shown that the neurobeachin (NBEA) gene is disrupted in human patients with idiopathic autism ( Castermans et al., 2003 ). The NBEA gene spans the common fragile site FRA 13A and encodes a signal scaffold protein ( Savelyeva et al., 2006 ). In mice, NBEA has been shown to be involved in the trafficking and function of a specific subset of synaptic vesicles. ( Medrihan et al., 2009 ; Savelyeva et al., 2006 ). Rugose (rg) is the Drosophila homolog of the mammalian and human NBEA. Our previous genetic and molecular analyses have shown that rg encodes an A kinase anchor protein (DAKAP 550), which interacts with components of the epidermal growth factor receptor or EGFR and Notch-mediated signaling pathways, facilitating cross talk between these and other pathways ( Shamloula et al., 2002 ). We now present functional data from studies on the larval neuromuscular junction that reveal abnormal synaptic architecture and physiology. In addition, adult rg loss-of-function mutants exhibit defective social interactions, impaired habituation, aberrant locomotion, and hyperactivity. These results demonstrate that Drosophila NBEA (rg) mutants exhibit phenotypic characteristics reminiscent of human ASD and thus could serve as a genetic model for studying ASDs.
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PMID:Drosophila mutants of the autism candidate gene neurobeachin (rugose) exhibit neuro-developmental disorders, aberrant synaptic properties, altered locomotion, and impaired adult social behavior and activity patterns. 2610 Jan 4

Dysregulation of the PI3K/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway could contribute to the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorders. In this study, phosphorylated Akt concentration was measured in 37 autistic children and 12, gender and age similar neurotypical, controls using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Akt levels were compared to biomarkers known to be associated with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and c-Met (hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor) pathways and severity levels of 19 autism-related symptoms. We found phosphorylated Akt levels significantly lower in autistic children and low Akt levels correlated with high EGFR and HGF and low gamma-aminobutyric acid, but not other biomarkers. Low Akt levels also correlated significantly with increased severity of receptive language, conversational language, hypotonia, rocking and pacing, and stimming, These results suggest a relationship between decreased phosphorylated Akt and selected symptom severity in autistic children and support the suggestion that the AKT pathways may be associated with the etiology of autism.
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PMID:Decreased Phosphorylated Protein Kinase B (Akt) in Individuals with Autism Associated with High Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and Low Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA). 2650 28

Genetic variants conferring risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been identified, but the role of post-transcriptional mechanisms in ASD is not well understood. We performed genome-wide microRNA (miRNA) expression profiling in post-mortem brains from individuals with ASD and controls and identified miRNAs and co-regulated modules that were perturbed in ASD. Putative targets of these ASD-affected miRNAs were enriched for genes that have been implicated in ASD risk. We confirmed regulatory relationships between several miRNAs and their putative target mRNAs in primary human neural progenitors. These include hsa-miR-21-3p, a miRNA of unknown CNS function that is upregulated in ASD and that targets neuronal genes downregulated in ASD, and hsa_can_1002-m, a previously unknown, primate-specific miRNA that is downregulated in ASD and that regulates the epidermal growth factor receptor and fibroblast growth factor receptor signaling pathways involved in neural development and immune function. Our findings support a role for miRNA dysregulation in ASD pathophysiology and provide a rich data set and framework for future analyses of miRNAs in neuropsychiatric diseases.
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PMID:Genome-wide, integrative analysis implicates microRNA dysregulation in autism spectrum disorder. 2757 Oct 9