Discovery may open door for treating fragile X carriers
Fragile X syndrome, an inherited cause of autism and intellectual disability, can have consequences even
for carriers of the disorder who don’t have full-blown symptoms. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified
a potential target for treatment for fragile X carriers.
Fragile X makes brain cells talk too much
The most common inherited form of mental retardation
and autism, fragile X syndrome, turns some brain cells into
chatterboxes, scientists at the School of Medicine report. The extra chatter may make it harder for brain cells to identify and attend to important signals, potentially establishing a parallel at the cellular level to the attention problems seen in autism.