A team of researchers from the University of Seville has shown that the effects associated with autism can be reversible at any age thanks to a study with transgenic mice.
The key to the research is neurexins , proteins responsible for regulating the functioning of the synapse. Specifically, the study with transgenic mice has shown that postpartum neurexin dysfunction causes symptoms associated with autism. But they have also found that these behavioral alterations revert, even at an advanced age in the mouse, when the expression of the neurexin mutant is turned off.
Thus, the research results suggest that these defects in synaptic functioning, due to neurexins, lead to the development of autism , although they also show that its effects can be recovered at any age when normal synaptic function is restored .
The neuronal alterations that lead to autism are not known exactly when they occur, whether it is during the prenatal stage or after birth . Thus, the objective of studies such as the one carried out at the University of Seville and recently published in the scientific journal Cell Reports is to unravel the origin of autism. Perhaps in the very near future this behavior disorder will be able to be corrected.
