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| Wednesday,
August 27, 2008
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Vol. 12
No. 126 |
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RESEARCH 'Autistic' Mice Give Genetic Clues tinyurl.com/6ph9vm Scientists have found novel patterns of ultrasonic vocalizations in a genetic mouse model of autism, adding a unique element to the available mouse behaviors that capture components of the human disease, and representing a new step towards identifying causes and better treatments. "Particularly intriguing are the unusual categories of vocalizations and the more frequent, loud harmonics evident in the BTBR T+ tf/J (BTBR) mouse model of autism, that may resemble the atypical vocalizations seen in some autistic infants," say study authors Jacqueline Crawley, PhD, of the National Institute of Mental Health and Maria Luisa Scattoni, PhD, of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome, Italy. Their study appears in the August 27 issue of the journal PLoS ONE. Vocal communication in animals has been extensively documented for many species, including songbirds, whales, and dolphins. Adult rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations during aggression, mating, and play, and in response to some stressors. Separated infant mice and rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations which elicit pup retrieval to the nest by the parents, and licking and crouching behaviors by the mother, suggesting that these calls play an important role in social communication. Abnormal reciprocal social interactions and communication deficits are the first two diagnostic symptoms of autism. BTBR, a commercially available inbred strain of genetically identical mice, displays unusually low levels of juvenile play and adult social interactions, relevant to the first diagnostic symptom, and repetitive self-grooming, relevant to the third diagnostic symptom. "We hypothesize that ultrasonic vocalizations may be a measure of social communication in mice. Delayed, reduced, or unusual ultrasonic vocalizations in mice could offer a useful assay with reasonable face validity to the second diagnostic symptom of autism, impaired communication," the authors add. In the new study, the researchers classified calls emitted by mouse pups when separated from their mothers and siblings into ten categories. BTBR pups called more loudly and more frequently, as compared to three other strains of mice commonly used in behavioral genetics. Moreover, BTBR pups emitted a large number of harmonics, a category that was rare in the other strains, and their call repertoire appeared more limited, suggesting an unusual pattern or a syllable deficit in BTBR. The reduced vocal repertoire in BTBR mice may be analogous to atypical vocalizations in some infants and young children later diagnosed with autism. Instead of cooing and babbling, some young children may hum or grunt for extended periods, fail to add inflections into speech patterns, repeat "pop up" words out of context, squeal stereotypically, and laugh inappropriately. Others may be very irritable, cry for long periods of time, and be difficult to console. More crying in these babies may be similar to the higher number of separation calls in BTBR pups. The next step in the research is to discover whether mice actually communicate meaningful information to each other using ultrasonic vocalizations. If so, an accurate analysis of ultrasonic emissions could provide a reliable test to model the second diagnostic symptom of autism, impaired communication, for use in identifying genetic and environmental causes of autism, and for evaluating proposed treatments. Unusual Repertoire of Vocalizations in the BTBR T+tf/J Mouse Model of Autism. Scattoni ML, Gandhy SU, Ricceri L, Crawley JN (2008) PLoS ONE 3(8): e3067. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003067 DO SOMETHING ABOUT
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. . . Read, then Forward the Schafer Autism Report. • • • Stevia Is All-Natural And Calorie-Free, But Is It Safe? tinyurl.com/626eg2 By Elena Conis, The LA Times Stevia followers are a diverse bunch, including health nuts and food-industry magnates. The draw? The sweetener is all-natural and naturally calorie-free. But "natural" doesn't necessarily mean safe, and scientists have long struggled to make sense of early evidence hinting that stevia could be toxic. A series of studies published last month in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology put that question to the test for one type of stevia-based sweeteners. Stevia, a South American shrub, has leaves up to 300 times sweeter than table sugar. Extracts have been available as a dietary supplement since 1995. It's a popular food additive in Japan, Brazil and its native Paraguay, but in the U.S., where the Food and Drug Administration has determined there isn't sufficient proof it's nontoxic, stevia is banned from such uses. (Exceptions are made for food and drink items billing themselves as dietary supplements, such as the stevia-sweetened diet drink Zevia.) The sponsors of the recently published studies -- food manufacturer Cargill and the Coca-Cola Co. -- hope that in light of recent findings, the agency will reconsider its position on the calorie-free sweetener. Scientists began studying stevia in the lab roughly 40 years ago, and the first findings gave food safety officials in several countries pause. A 1968 study in female rats showed that drinking a concoction of stevia leaves and stems significantly reduced fertility. A 1985 study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that steviol, a breakdown product of stevia, might cause genetic mutations. (In Paraguayan traditional medicine, stevia is used to lower blood sugar and as a contraceptive.) Evidence of genetic and reproductive toxicity was sufficient to inspire a ban on the sweetener in the U.S. since the 1970s. (The 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act made it legal to sell stevia as a dietary supplement only, as long as it's not an ingredient in food.) But the research on which the FDA based its long-ago decision may now be out of date. In the last decade, countless studies have revisited stevia, often using purer extracts. + Read more: tinyurl.com/626eg2 • • • Turning the Tongue Into A Computer Control Pad Researchers work toward a mouth-powered control system for the disabled By Greg Bluestein for the Associated Press. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26338543 The tireless tongue already controls taste and speech, helps kiss and swallow and fights germs. Now scientists hope to add one more ability to the mouthy muscle, and turn it into a computer control pad. Georgia Tech researchers believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system could transform a disabled person's mouth into a virtual computer, teeth into a keyboard — and tongue into the key that manipulates it all. "You could have full control over your environment by just being able to move your tongue," said Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor who leads the team's research. The group's Tongue Drive System turns the tongue into a joystick of sorts, allowing the disabled to manipulate wheelchairs, manage home appliances and control computers. The work still has a ways to go — one potential user called the design "grotesque" — but early tests are encouraging. The system is far from the first that seeks a new way to control electronics through facial movements. But disabled advocates have particularly high hopes that the tongue could prove the most effective. "This could give you an almost infinite number of switches and options for communication," said Mike Jones, a vice president of research and technology at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta rehabilitation hospital. "It's easy, and somebody could learn an entirely different language." + Read more: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26338543 • • • PUBLIC HEALTH Strife Over Shots: Should Our Kids Play Together? From MSNBC. tinyurl.com/5e6t6z Karey Williams never thought a parenting decision would come between her and a good friend. The two had known one another for a decade, supported each other through infertility treatment and had their first babies around the same time. But when she told the friend that she had stopped vaccinating her daughter at age 1, the relationship abruptly ended. "She said, 'Well then, your child can't come into my house,'" recalls Williams, 47, who lives in the Chicago area. That's not the only time Williams has encountered conflict because of the decision she made for her daughter, now 7. "I've had people voice their opposition to me, that I'm ruining the herd immunity ... that my child would put their child at risk," she says. While the vast majority of American parents vaccinate their children, more appear to be opting against immunization. One study found that the percentage of parents who took personal belief exemptions to state laws requiring school-age kids to be vaccinated increased from just under 1 percent in 2001 to about 2.5 percent in 2004. Heightened attention to the heated vaccine debate has parents on both sides of the fence discussing the issues more and sometimes finding themselves in awkward or even acrimonious social situations. Whether an unvaccinated child should be kicked out of a play group was the topic of a recent ethics column in The New York Times Magazine that got considerable buzz in parenting circles. Many parents who choose not to vaccinate - often because of fear that autism could be caused by vaccines (though there's no scientific evidence of a connection), or they have other philosophical or religious objections - argue that if another person's child is immunized, what's the problem? Many parents who vaccinate feel this way too, if they think about the issue at all. But vaccines aren't an absolute guarantee. Most are 90 percent to 99 percent effective, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Jennifer Collado, 37, of Glen Rock, N.J., says members of her son's toddler play group were "stunned" when one mother mentioned that her child wasn't vaccinated. The group didn't kick them out though, and shortly after they moved out of state. But the group felt that information should have been mentioned upfront. "Someone pointed out to her that it was her choice to do that but that she was putting everyone's kids in jeopardy by not having her kids vaccinated," Collado says. 'Like a secret society' Knowing how volatile the subject is, many parents opposed to vaccination choose to avoid it in conversation or seek out play groups and schools with other unvaccinated children like their own, say Williams and others. "It's sort of like a secret society," says Williams, who is on the board of directors of Moms Against Mercury, a North Carolina-based group that opposes the use of mercury in vaccines. "You feel each mom out and when you feel like you're on the same page, you discuss it." + Read more: tinyurl.com/5e6t6z • • • MEDIA Researcher, Author Explores Therapies For Aspergers By Kelli Bamforth. tinyurl.com/5n6lz5 She may be an expert now, but at first, it took awhile for Lisa Barrett Mann to recognize her son’s quirks as symptoms of Asperger syndrome. Mann had studied autism in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in psychology, but was told it was a severe disorder, where patients sat in the corner, rocked and never spoke. And that certainly did not describe her son, David. “He was a really smart little kid … everybody was amazed by how smart he was,” Mann said. “He was different though, quirky, and I wasn’t sure for a long time what was going on with him. I didn’t recognize his quirks as being related to autism." David always had one subject over which he obsessed, Mann said. He could repeat long monologues and dialogues from movies and TV, and had a diverse vocabulary – in kindergarten, he knew what interdimensional portals were, but not a counter. Mann had risen from a reporter at a health care trade publication to become group publisher, but when David entered kindergarten, his needs increased. “With kids with AS, it gets more difficult as they start school because social demands increase,” Mann said. “You have to be more compliant and do what the teacher wants you to do when. He needed more attention from me, so I started working as a freelance writer for the Washington Post health care section and trade publications." Mann stumbled across her son’s diagnosis on Google one day. She saw the symptoms of Asperger syndrome and immediately recognized them. “I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s our son,’” Mann said. “It was six months before we could get an appointment for a diagnosis, but I started focusing more on that and doing less reporting. I was editing books on developmental disabilities, educating myself at seminars and conferences. Eventually I got so absorbed and fascinated that we moved out to the Kansas City area so I could go to the University of Kansas. “They have the top special education department in the country, but also one of the top autism research departments. They’ve done lots of research on AS that not many universities have done yet – there is a lot more attention on autism." In May, Mann received KU’s School of Education Outstanding Master’s Project award for her study titled “Evidence-Based Interventions for Asperger Syndrome." Her thesis also placed second in the KU Graduate Student Research Competition and was an invited presentation at the Capitol Research Summit in Topeka, which highlights top graduate and medical school research in Kansas. Mann’s research found that cognitive-behavioral interviews have the best scientific evidence of effectiveness for AS. She performed an analysis of all scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals that evaluated AS intervention effectiveness. More than 80 percent of the effective interventions used cognitive techniques. “For autism in general, applied behavioral analysis has the greatest amount of research backing as effective,” Mann said. “Children with AS often overlap with children with autism, but they manifest symptoms differently. Because of lots of attention on applied behavioral analysis, people have lobbied to mandate that training for every child on the autism spectrum, including those with AS. “I thought that wasn’t the approach for our kids." Children with AS are typically very verbal with large vocabularies, Mann said. Also, a large percentage of children with autism have mental retardation, but by definition, those with AS have normal IQs and 20 percent are considered gifted. Cognitive-behavioral interventions approach not just behaviors, but how a child thinks about situations, Mann said. For example, a cognitive-behavioral therapy might be writing short stories to introduce a child to specific situations, explaining the behavioral expectations and what might happen. “Often, AS kids like predictability, and the short stories make the situation predictable for them,” Mann said. “Once they understand what’s happening, behavior problems go away. Social skills training also falls in that area, and that’s where I do most of my work. While (AS kids) are smart and active in academics, they don’t automatically pick up on social cues. “They need to be taught differently, taught things that other kids don’t need to be taught … they can be socially naïve, but they’re really sweet kids and they often have fun, quirky senses of humor. I love working with these kids." Mann recently published her first book, “More than Little Professors: Children with Asperger Syndrome, In Their Own Words.” The book includes poetry, stories and quotes from more than 70 children and young adults with Asperger syndrome. “The term ‘little professors’ has stuck with kids with AS,” Mann said. “They have special interests and encyclopedic knowledge and often lecture you about what they know – whether it’s Superman or vacuum cleaners." Some of the material is cute and funny, while some discusses difficult situations, such as dealing with the loss of a loved one. “It’s nice to be able to share how the kids experience the world in their own words … you learn more when you hear from the kids themselves,” Mann said. “You get a different view of them." She said she hopes the book will be useful for families and parents, but also used in graduate programs to help students studying special education or psychology. Mann established a private practice in her Overland Park residence, where she specializes in evidence-based interventions for children with Asperger syndrome and similar social-learning disorders. David, now 13, attends Lakewood Middle School in the Blue Valley School District. The school has a program for AS kids, but David only goes for one or two class periods and spends the rest of the day in general education. He receives straight A’s, has friends and just participated in the Duke Talent Identification Program, earning above-average scores on the ACT college entrance exam, Mann said. “It’s great he’s doing well in school, but he’s happy, he has friends,” she said. “He has no behavior problems anymore." • • • Autism Research Institute Releases New Autism.tv Site The Autism Research Institute is pleased to announce the release of its Autism.tv website featuring links to stories of intervention and recovery. The website is intended to demonstrate to parents, physicians, and research scientists that recovery is a reality for a significant percentage of children with autism. Autism.tv www.autism.com/tv/ links to caregiver stories about treatment and recovery. Please send us existing story links to: - Videos (youTube, short films, etc.) - Online video news clips - Online (written) news stories or blog articles published on the Web • • • COMMENTARY Consequences of Fear From the Republican American. tinyurl.com/6benwo The Associated Press put on a clinic in sensationalism last week with its dispatch "Measles at decade high as more parents fear vaccine." Those parents rejected the two-stage MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine for their children because one study involving 170 children found high rates of autism among the vaccinated. That finding was refuted by subsequent research, including one 14-year study involving 2 million European children. Parental fears were stoked, of course, by media scaremongering; the original news ran under banner headlines while news demolishing the MMR-autism link was buried. But after frightening some parents away from the vaccine, the AP now sensationally reports: "Measles cases in the United States are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination." As the AP later reports, however, just 131 children have come down with measles this year. Yes, only 42 cases were reported last year, but 131, even in this context, barely rises to the level of an outbreak. And no media hype would be complete without exaggerating the threat. The AP's claim that measles "is a potentially deadly ... virus" is barely true in the Third World, but it's nearly false in America, where the chances of contracting measles is only 0.01 percent and only one-third of 1 percent of those who get the virus die, mostly from complications from pre-existing conditions such as leukemia, lung disease, cerebral palsy and immune deficiency. As a physician wrote in a letter to the British Medical Journal in 2005, "Under normal conditions, healthy children do not die from or become disabled from the complications of measles and if they do, questions should be asked about their management." High vaccination rates have prevented major measles outbreaks in this country for going on 50 years and will continue to do so for years to come. And no amount of media fear-mongering can change that boring truth. • • • Why Some Parents Question Vaccines "Measles cases in the U.S. are at the highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of those involving children whose parents rejected vaccination, health officials reported."--Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press. By Julie Deardorff, Chicago Tribune. tinyurl.com/6jeszp From a public health standpoint, a drop in vaccination rates is considered a crisis because it increases the chances of a mass disease outbreak. But the real crisis is not that some parents skip or delay vaccination because they believe vaccines might pose health risks or are linked to autism. It's that they're losing confidence in public health officials and policy, partly because vaccines are being forced on them, regardless of their personal desires or beliefs. The mistrust began in 1997 when Congress asked the Food and Drug Administration to measure the levels of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal found in vaccines. At the same time, the Internet was dramatically changing how the public accessed medical information. Safety standards for thimerosal did not exist, but the finding that six-month-old children could be exposed to 187.7 micrograms of mercury (more than 80 micrograms above the recommended limit for methylmercury, a related compound) prompted safety concerns. Thimerosal was removed from many (but not all) vaccines as a precaution. Meanwhile, the number of new and required vaccines kept rising. Immunization against diseases that were once a childhood rite of passage and that conferred lifelong immunity, such as chickenpox, was now mandated for public school. In 1982, the Centers for Disease Control recommended 23 doses of 7 vaccines for children up to age 6. Today, children are supposed to receive 48 doses of 12 vaccines by age six. (Toss in the flu shot, which may or may not be effective, and it boosts the number to 69 doses of 16 vaccines by age 18.) Even if the vaccines do not have thimerosal, parents are wondering, "Why do I have to give my child a Hepatitis B shot at birth?" And "Why have more than two dozen states tried to mandate the vaccine for humanpapilloma virus (HPV) when we still lack evidence that it's effective against cervical cancer, something Dr. Charlotte Haug pointed out in the New England Journal of Medicine?" Other developments that have undermined the public's faith in health officials: * Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fudged data to prove that Hurricane Katrina survivors were not getting sick from their FEMA trailers, Democratic lawmakers charged. In fact, residents were breathing in formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. * Last year, a week after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced that the influenza vaccine was effective against only 40 percent of the season's flu viruses, it recommended that all children over the age of 6 months get a flu shot. * In February, health officials announced that the combination vaccine Pro Quad, which protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, may pose some health risks. * Research suggests that America might be over-vaccinating its kids and that we might want to re-evaluate and adjust the immunization schedule. But not because of health concerns; the vaccines might just be unnecessary and waste a lot of money according to the study by researchers with Oregon Health & Science University published in the New England Journal of Medicine. * The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended issuing cholesterol drugs to ward off heart disease for some children as young as 8, even though there's a lack of evidence that the use of statins in children would prevent heart attacks later in life. * A study in the journal Pediatrics found that 33 percent of pediatricians would strongly recommend the rotavirus vaccine, if it were up to the doctor's discretion. But if it becomes an "official" recommendation by the AAP, that number goes up to 50 percent. Likewise 20 percent of pediatricians would recommend against it, but that number goes down to 11 percent if it is officially recommended for routine use. "This basically indicates that some pediatricians are willing to disregard their honest feelings about what is best for their patients and are unwilling to "buck the system," my pediatrician told me. "Instead, they will blindly follow the dictates of the AAP." * The AAP issued a sample letter to pediatricians suggesting that physicians tell parents who refuse to vaccinate that they have a "self-centered and unacceptable attitude" since their child is getting protection from others who have chosen to vaccinate. Parents who absolutely refuse to vaccinate could be booted from your pediatrician's practice. * In Maryland, parents who didn't vaccinate their children against chickenpox and Hepatitis B were threatened with jail time and fines. Vaccines represent social health without regard to individuals. That's how they work. But threatening parents--especially American parents who pride themselves on rugged individualism--will not inspire them to vaccinate their children. We don't know what causes autism or the other chronic childhood disorders that are increasing, including asthma, allergy and attention deficit disorder. Until we do, parents should have the right to ask as many questions as they need to. We routinely question the safety of most things we put in our children's bodies, whether it's food, herbs, over-the-counter medications or prescription drugs. Vaccines should not be an exception. Note: The opinions expressed in COMMENTARY are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Schafer Autism Report. Today's SAR is provided through the support of paid subscription readers. - THANK YOU - |
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Copyright Notice: The above items are copyright protected. They are for our readers' personal education or research purposes only and provided at their request. Articles may not be further reprinted or used commercially without consent from the copyright holders. To find the copyright holders, follow the referenced website link provided at the beginning of each item. |
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