logo
‘Landmark study' led by UNLV shows new path to treat, prevent autism

‘Landmark study' led by UNLV shows new path to treat, prevent autism

Miami Herald06-05-2025

National 'Landmark study' led by UNLV shows new path to treat, prevent autism
Dr. Lukasz Sznajder sets up the polymerase chain reaction to detect RNA changes with the assistance of lab students as part of the Sznajder genetics lab at UNLV on April 30, 2025, in Las Vegas. From left, Daniela Hernandez Ensenat, Marcella Siqueira, Manisha Gun, Sznajder and Lil Costello. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS)
TNS
LAS VEGAS - A UNLV-led study has discovered a new molecular path that leads to autism, potentially opening the way for more intervention in the future.
The study by Łukasz Sznajder, a UNLV chemistry and biochemistry professor, was published on April 21 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
It found that a gene that causes myotonic dystrophy - a genetic condition that creates progressive muscle weakness - also causes autism spectrum disorder. Researchers say the study can help with new diagnoses, prevention and treatment of autism.
"This is a landmark example of an RNA-mediated pathway to autism. It doesn't account for all of autism, but it exposes one route among the many that lead to the spectrum," Ryan Sultan, a psychiatrist and research director at Integrative Psych and a clinical psychiatry assistant professor at Columbia University.
Link between autism and myotonic dystrophy
Around 95% of children with autism have at least one extra condition, Sznajder said.
As a geneticist, Sznajder had long noticed a high crossover between people suffering from myotonic dystrophy and autism.
So, he posed the question: "What is happening in the brains of people with myotonic dystrophy on the molecular level, and what is happening in the brains of people with autism?"
Joined by researchers at the University of Florida as well as in Poland and Toronto, the team found that changes in the DMPK gene that cause myotonic dystrophy also cause autism-related genes to be "mis-spliced," so multiple autism-related genes work differently. When mutated DMPK RNAs are created, they act as a sponge and absorb otherwise healthy proteins from the muscleblind-like (MBNL) family of genes - disrupting muscle and brain development.
"Many people with myotonic dystrophy also have autism, but it wasn't clear why. Here, the scientists have found the mechanism for this - the DMPK gene regulates known autism risk genes that are important for nervous system function," Audrey Brumback, an assistant professor of neurology and pediatrics at the University of Texas at Austin, said.
Brumback said it is important because it has the potential to develop treatments that target mis-splicing so that the healthy versions of the proteins are produced.
Autism genetic
Ample research shows that autism is a genetic disorder - it is around 60% to 90% genetics, which leaves some room for environmental factors.
The research, however, has been far less conclusive on what those genes and mutations are, Sznajder said. Different studies have shown a "laundry list" of genes that may contribute to autism.
"The message is that autism can sometimes arise from changes not in the DNA sequence of an autism gene, but in how that gene's information is sliced and diced in the brain. It's a more nuanced genetic influence - one that was invisible to us until techniques like RNA sequencing revealed it," Sultan said.
But despite the overwhelming research indicating autism is primarily genetic, the issue has become increasingly contentious.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has discounted the genetic causes of autism and has said that it is from an "environmental toxin."
Before becoming head of the department, Kennedy joined anti-vaccine advocates in claiming childhood vaccines are responsible for autism, but studies by the CDC and others have ruled that out, according to The Associated Press. A fraudulent study claiming a link to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was later retracted by the journal that published it, the AP said.
The Autism Society of America called Kennedy's statements "harmful, misleading and unrealistic."
"Autism is a complex developmental disability shaped by genetic, biological, and environmental factors. It is neither a chronic illness nor a contagion, that qualifies harmful language like "epidemic," and to do so is both inaccurate and stigmatizing," the organization said in a statement.
'Connecting the dots'
That makes Sznajder's research, he said, all the more important.
Sznajder hopes the research will help design new diagnostic tools and screen children with myotonic dystrophy for autism, and vice versa. He also said that clinical trials for myotonic dystrophy could be used for treatment or prevention of autism.
"It's exactly connecting those dots," Sznajder said. "As we understand the linkage between gene and autism, now we can think about intervention."
It also opens questions for whether it can help with other versions of autism disorder as well.
"Can we identify the core of what has to happen for someone to develop autism spectrum disorder? Can we prevent that in the future? The research that we've done is opening the door to those questions," Sznajder said.
_____
L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS L.E. Baskow
TNS
Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 4:04 AM.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Ivermectin is now available without a prescription in some places. Good luck finding it.
Ivermectin is now available without a prescription in some places. Good luck finding it.

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Ivermectin is now available without a prescription in some places. Good luck finding it.

Boise, Idaho, pharmacist Matt Murray has no choice but to disappoint the handful of people who call him every day asking for a drug used to treat parasitic worms. He could give them the medication, called ivermectin, but only with a doctor's note. The callers aren't in the throes of an active intestinal worm infestation, Murray said. They simply want access to the pills without having to see a doctor first. 'A lot of people are calling, asking, 'Do you guys have it for sale? Can I buy it? How do I get it?'' said Murray, the director of operations for the independent Customedica Pharmacy. 'Not so much, 'How does it work? What is it for?'' The volume of such calls has increased sharply since mid-April, when Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, signed a bill into law mandating that ivermectin be available to anyone who wants it over the counter. While the law technically says that pharmacists like Murray can sell the drug over the counter, the Food and Drug Administration hasn't approved it to be used this way. 'I don't feel that we could just sell prescription ivermectin,' Murray said. 'It's not designed or packaged for retail sale.' That hasn't stopped frenzied social media claims about ivermectin's supposed 'miraculous' abilities to cure everything from Covid to cancer. 'Ivermectin eliminated the cancer on the skin of my shoulder and it only took 3 weeks,' one person wrote on X. 'It's also working wonders on my eczema,' another wrote on the platform. Ivermectin has never been formulated or labeled specifically for over-the-counter use, like aspirin or an antacid. Without proper guidance, there is concern that people could overdose on the medication. Interest in using drugs or experimental treatments in unapproved ways has gained steam with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appointment as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy recently said on a podcast that people should have access to controversial alternative therapies like stem cells and chelation therapy to remove heavy metals from the body. The FDA has warned that neither should be used without oversight from a doctor. The hype has prompted lawmakers in 16 states, including Idaho, to propose and in some cases pass legislation to make the pills readily available for anyone without a prescription. While health insurance covers many prescription drugs, including ivermectin, it doesn't cover over-the-counter medicines. This year, two other GOP-led states — Arkansas and Tennessee — passed over-the-counter ivermectin laws. NBC News called 15 independent pharmacies in those states, plus Idaho, to ask whether pharmacists could provide ivermectin without a prescription. Not a single one said they'd sell the drug over the counter, despite the new laws. All, however, appeared to be sympathetic to the request. One pharmacist in Arkansas took the time to explain that he needed to wait until the FDA provided guidance on over-the-counter ivermectin. Until then, he and all the others said, over-the-counter access to ivermectin would have to wait. Pharmacists say that just because over-the-counter ivermectin is written into law doesn't mean it should be made available to anyone who asks for it. They still rely on federal health guidance. 'Most over-the-counter drugs, especially ones that were prescriptions at one point, go through some FDA approval process,' Murray said. 'In that process, it gets decided what the labeling is going to say,' including warnings and directions. Republican lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia have also proposed bills to make ivermectin available over the counter. Nearly all would simply permit health care providers and pharmacists to distribute ivermectin without a prescription. Most, like the one proposed in Alabama, would also protect pharmacists from any possible disciplinary action such as fines or license suspension from pharmacy licensing boards for dispensing it. Maine's proposed legislation specifically permits ivermectin to be sold to people who want to try it for Covid, cancer or the flu. Mississippi's bill would limit over-the-counter ivermectin to anyone 18 and older. The drug likely wouldn't be placed on store shelves, but be kept behind pharmacy counters, much like some cold medicines. Even if states do pass laws protecting pharmacists from disciplinary action, like the proposed legislation in Alabama, Murray said that he and his colleagues remain concerned. 'If you dispense something that doesn't have directions or safety precautions on it, who's ultimately liable if that causes harm?' Murray said. 'I don't know that I would want to assume that risk.' The Food and Drug Administration warns that taking large doses of ivermectin 'can be dangerous' and cause vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, seizures, coma and even death. The drug could also interact with other medications like blood thinners, the FDA says. A spokeswoman for CVS Health said that while its pharmacies are able to dispense ivermectin with a prescription, they are 'not currently selling ivermectin over the counter' in any state. Walgreens declined to comment. Ivermectin was discovered by Japanese biochemist Satoshi Ōmura in the 1970s, first as a veterinary drug and then as a groundbreaking treatment for dangerous and disfiguring tropical diseases such as river blindness, as well as tapeworms, scabies and other worm-related infections. Hundreds of millions of people in mostly underdeveloped countries have used it safely with minimal side effects, such as fatigue or diarrhea, for decades. During the pandemic, the true benefit of the drug got twisted and distorted amid a social media frenzy. When mainstream doctors and scientists insisted that ivermectin didn't treat Covid, mostly conservative groups embraced it in direct opposition to public health officials. Podcaster Joe Rogan told his tens of millions of followers that ivermectin worked to cure him of Covid in 2021, prompting many people to seek out the drug as a way to treat mild or moderate cases of the virus. While there was early hope that ivermectin could ease Covid symptoms, it didn't treat respiratory viruses. It still doesn't. Ivermectin has also been touted as a cancer cure. On the same podcast, actor Mel Gibson claimed ivermectin had wiped out Stage 4 cancer in three of his friends. Gibson offered no proof. Some cancer patients believed the promises, with potentially devastating results. 'I tried that last year,' Scott Adams, the creator of the 'Dilbert' comic strip, wrote on X, 'to no effect.' Adams, a vocal Donald Trump supporter, revealed in May that he'd been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. 'There are claims of it working, but I am aware of no patient who benefitted from it.' Adams asked his social media followers to stop inundating him with advice to take ivermectin. Adams wrote that his 'odds of survival have probably jumped from zero to 30%' because he decided on a different treatment and will be 'working with top doctors in the field.' When one person pleaded with him in the comments not to discourage people from trying ivermectin, the cartoonist didn't play around: 'Your advice could kill people if they delay other treatments.' There's simply no evidence that ivermectin treats cancer, said Dr. Harold Burstein, a breast oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He knows because he's looked for it, without success. Since the Rogan podcast featuring Gibson aired, Burstein has had an uptick in patients asking him about ivermectin. He scoured the medical literature looking for any shred of indication that the drug could be useful to his patients. 'There are exactly zero published clinical trials in a human being on whether ivermectin does or doesn't treat cancer,' Burstein said. 'I can assure you that if any oncologist in America had seen' a benefit to ivermectin, he said, 'they would have been eager to write it up.' Some scientists are indeed trying to figure out whether ivermectin has any impact on cancer outcomes. Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles have begun a preliminary study combining ivermectin with an immunotherapy drug for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Final results aren't expected anytime soon. Ivermectin is manufactured in the U.S. by Merck. The company said in a statement that ivermectin should only be used within the approved FDA framework. 'The use of ivermectin is not supported beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information,' a Merck spokesperson wrote in an email. Despite the growing push for over-the-counter ivermectin, there's no sales data available for how many people are buying the pills. Focusing on making ivermectin available without a doctor's prescription is the latest in a trend of mostly conservative politicians sidestepping expert medical advice. Utah and Florida, for example, recently banned community water fluoridation, despite decades of widespread evidence that it drastically reduces tooth decay. Dr. Hugh Cassiere, director of critical care services for South Shore University Hospital, part of Northwell Health in New York, said, 'This is about constituents who either heard, read or saw something on social media and now have an idea that this is something good. They're going right to their congressman or senator to demand access.' 'That's not how medicine should work,' he said. Scientists did, in fact, study whether ivermectin helped people with Covid. Dr. Adrian Hernandez, a cardiologist with the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina, led a large research project that ultimately showed ivermectin had no benefit in treating acute Covid. 'It's always great that legislators care about the health of the state,' Hernandez said. 'But ivermectin didn't help patients get better any faster.' Hernandez's study was posted on a preprint server called medRxiv in 2022. Studies posted on the site are considered preliminary because they haven't been peer-reviewed. A second 2022 paper published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that Covid patients treated with ivermectin weren't any less likely to be hospitalized than people who didn't get the drug. A third study that did suggest a benefit was later retracted because it contained fraudulent data, according to the publisher. None of this stopped many from demanding access to the drug. During the pandemic, hospitals reported a spike in patients who had been poisoned after taking veterinary-grade ivermectin intended for livestock. Two deaths in New Mexico were linked to the drug. Even the FDA warned that high doses of ivermectin can cause seizures, coma and death. 'You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it,' the FDA tweeted on Aug. 21, 2021. The controversial post was later deleted but can still be accessed through web archives. A Merck spokesperson said the drug shouldn't be used for anything other than clearing parasitic infestations. Northwell Health's Cassiere said medications, especially ivermectin, should only be used after talking with a qualified health care provider, no matter how politicians vote. 'If you're not an expert, if you did not go to medical school, nurse practitioner school, physician assistant school, and don't have the proper training, then you should not be recommending therapies outside of that expertise,' he said. 'Are you going to get a bank loan at the deli on the corner? I don't think so.' This article was originally published on

In a world without people, how fast would NYC fall apart? Here's the timeline.
In a world without people, how fast would NYC fall apart? Here's the timeline.

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

In a world without people, how fast would NYC fall apart? Here's the timeline.

Imagine the ceaseless cacophony of New York City suddenly stopped. No sirens wailed. No cars zoomed. No subways rumbled beneath sidewalks. All eight million New Yorkers disappeared overnight. Now, imagine what would happen next. If no one's around to sweep the sidewalks, weed Central Park, or turn the power grid on, nature would move in—and quick. Dandelions would spring up in asphalt cracks. Raccoons would move into abandoned apartments. Sidewalk trees would outgrow their planters. But just how swiftly would the city disappear beneath a curtain of green? We talked to architects and urban ecologists to map out a potential timeline. With no one to maintain the power grid, the Big Apple would go dark within a few days. The Milky Way would illuminate Midtown as light pollution disappears overnight. Without air conditioning and heat, 'you start getting weird temperatures inside the building. Mold starts to form on the walls,' says architect Jana Horvat of the University of Zagreb, who studies building decay. Some green energy projects in the city might stay lit for longer, such as the solar and wind-powered Ricoh Americas billboard in Times Square. Eventually, though, even the Ricoh billboard would go dark; not because the billboard would lose power, but because there would be no one to replace its LED lightbulbs. Without power, the pump rooms that clear out 13 million gallons of water daily from the subway would be useless, and the train tunnels would begin to flood. 'Probably this water would result in [the subway] being, you know, occupied by new species,' says Horvat. 'Some plants would start growing, some animals' would move in. Likely, species that already thrive in the subway—rats, cockroaches, pigeons, opossums—would be the first ones to take advantage of the human-free passages. Within the first month, the manicured lawns of Central and Prospect Park would grow wild and unkept. 'When you stop mowing a lawn, you get a meadow,' says botanist Peter Del Tredici, a senior research scientist emeritus at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, who wrote a book on urban plant life. Within a month, dandelions, ragweed, and yellow nutsedge would start popping up in the now knee-high grasses of New York's iconic parks. 'First, it's herbaceous plants, but then, you know, you get trees and shrubs and vines,' says Tredici. In a year without people, many of New York's buildings would start to deteriorate. 'The glass facades would be the first to go,' says Horvat. The single-pane glass on brownstones and family homes would be the most vulnerable, but in a decade, even the heat-strengthened glass on skyscrapers would start to wear down and crack. And once windows break, water gets in. 'Then you'll have plants start growing in there,' says Tredici. Apartments would transform into humid hothouses, the perfect habitat for mosquitoes, water snakes, fungus, and rushes. 'It's like a wetland on the second floor.' Without maintenance, the asphalt streets and parking lots in New York would quickly degrade. Freeze-thaw cycles would create cracks. 'Water settles in that crack, and then that's all the plants need,' says Tredici. First, mosses would grow. Within a decade, young trees may even sprout. The London planetree, the most common street tree in New York, is particularly known for its resilience and fast growth rate, and any of its offspring could quickly find a toehold in a deteriorating asphalt parking lot. Within a decade, the Statue of Liberty would also start to deteriorate. The statue's copper plating would start to split, allowing sea spray to break down its interior steel skeleton. Steel 'is a very durable material, but it is very prone to corroding if it comes in contact with damp conditions,' says Horvat: That's bad news for New York, a city made from steel. In the decades since humans abandoned New York, a 'novel ecosystem' would emerge, says Tredici. 'It's not going to look like anything that's ever existed anywhere in the world.' Tredici points to Detroit as a case study. Today, crabapple trees—tough ornamentals native to the Central Asian mountains—blanket Detroit. 'They actually will spread all over,' says Tredici, and after 50 years without humans, Central and Riverside Park's crabapple trees would grow among a young forest full of London planetrees, honeylocusts, pin oaks, and Norway maples (the last three being common New York street trees). Nightshade vines and poison ivy would creep up buildings, and mosses and resilient weeds would cover the higher reaches of exposed windy skyscrapers. Among the greenery, more and more animals would call Manhattan home. Deer, rabbits, groundhogs, and wild turkeys would move in. Larger predators—coyotes, bobcats, black bears, and copperhead snakes—would follow. Peregrine falcons, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and great horned owls would nest in hollowed-out buildings, while feral cats prowl the abandoned upper floors of apartment buildings, feasting on mice and birds. Despite their futuristic look, the city's newest spires, such as 10 Hudson Yards and 111 West 57th Street, would be the first to fall. These buildings rely on slender, reinforced steel skeletons encased in reinforced concrete. But when the power shuts off and water seeps in through these buildings' glass curtain walls, these high-rises would rot from the inside out. The Empire State Building and Chrysler Building would likely outlast their younger rivals. Built to support much more weight than necessary (a safety precaution in the early days of skyscrapers), these giants' steel frames are bolstered by thick masonry and interior walls. Ten Hudson Yards might last a century. The Empire State Building might last 50 years longer, but eventually even these historic titans would collapse. After a century, New York City would 'become a forest,' says Tredici. A canopy of mature trees over a 100-feet-tall would replace the city's skyscrapers. Soil would regenerate. Concrete, one of the world's 'strongest' construction materials, says Horvat, would dissolve. New York's carefully manicured river parks, such as the Hudson River and East River Park, would transform into wetlands teeming with eels, egrets, turtles, beavers, and muskrats. But even as skyscrapers fell and forests grew, parts of New York would 'survive for centuries in this ruinous state,' says Horvat. Cracked marble lions would stalk the forest floor. Soil and underbrush would obscure once-gleaming granite fountains. Rusted steel beams would jut out from dense root systems. Even without humans, pieces of New York would endure—a fragile legacy for the future to either uncover or forget. This story is part of Popular Science's Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you've always wanted to know? Ask us.

Activists protest possible Medicaid cuts outside KS Rep. Derek Schmidt's Topeka office
Activists protest possible Medicaid cuts outside KS Rep. Derek Schmidt's Topeka office

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Yahoo

Activists protest possible Medicaid cuts outside KS Rep. Derek Schmidt's Topeka office

TOPEKA (KSNT) — Kansans are speaking out against lawmakers who are voting to cut Medicaid. The GOP-led One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed the US House by a razor thin margin. 215 House members voted to pass it, while 214 voted against it. Local Kansas activists are calling out Rep. Derek Schmidt, a Republican who voted to pass the bill. A group of protesters gathered outside of Schmidt's office in Topeka Thursday afternoon and expressed concerns about cuts to Medicaid. 'Today is life or death,' protester Dillon Warren said. 'We voted someone in there that we shouldn't have. He doesn't support us.' The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the bill passes, at least 7 million people will lose Medicaid coverage. For that reason, many Kansas voters are making their voices heard. Chiefs and Royals stadium bill deadline approaching as Kansas and Missouri fight for the teams 'We need Medicaid for medical equipment,' protester Rick Macias said. 'These chairs are $200,000 if not more. So, it's very important that Medicaid sticks around.' 27 News reached out to Schmidt, who was unavailable for comment. A spokesperson for the congressman provided 27 News with a written statement. 'Congressman Schmidt is a strong supporter of Medicaid for people the program is designed to help: those who are disabled, in nursing homes, pregnant, raising small children, or otherwise in need. Unfortunately, some states have abused the program by providing benefits to illegal aliens, millions of healthy young adults who choose not to work, or people who are not eligible to receive taxpayer-funded benefits from the program. That is the main reason why Medicaid spending has exploded by more than 50 percent since just 2019: an unsustainable rate of growth that puts benefits for Americans who need them most at risk. By addressing this abuse of the program, Congressman Schmidt is protecting both the traditional Medicaid recipients who rely on benefits and the taxpayers who pay the bills.' Spokesman for Rep. Derek Schmidt For more Capitol Bureau news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store