MIT Experts Create Animal Model for Autism

By engineering a mutation in a single gene, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were able to produce lab mice that exhibited symptoms characterizing autism in humans.

The mouse genome apparently needed little modifications in order to display compulsive and repetitive behaviors, the team says. The other symptom of autism was the intentional avoidance of social interaction with other members of the community.

Investigators at the Institute collaborated closely with colleagues from the Duke University for the new research. The gene the group targeted for investigation was also found in previous studies to be involved in many cases of human autism.

In a paper accompanying the findings, published in the March 20 online issue of the top scientific journal Nature, the team says that this gene apparently interferes and hampers with the communication patterns normally established between brain cells.

Armed with this new knowledge, researchers around the world could begin the search for new neural pathways that may be targeted in the fight against autism. This is the opinion of MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences Guoping Feng, the senior author of the Nature paper.

The expert also holds an appointment as a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

Such investigations are extremely important, considering the incidence of autism in the general population. In the United States alone, one in 110 children develop at least some symptoms associated with an autism spectrum disorder.

The most common include language difficulties and the presence of social avoidance patterns, as well as repetitive behaviors. Feng explains that there are currently no drugs to treat autism effectively.

“We now have a very robust model with a known cause for autistic-like behaviors. We can figure out the neural circuits responsible for these behaviors, which could lead to novel targets for treatment,” the investigator explains.

An added benefit of the newly-developed animal model is that it will enable scientists to test advanced drugs on mice before human trials begin.

“It looks like this is going to be a good model that will be used to explore, more deeply, the physiology of the disorder,” explains University of Montreal professor of medicine Guy Rouleau, who was not a part of the new investigation.