04-04-2005, 09:18 PM
The genetic flaw called Fragile X has a suite of tragic symptoms—mental disabilities, autism and seizures among them. Like most developmental defects, it's permanent, or that's what doctors have assumed. Tom Jongens, though, thinks that there might be hope for a partial cure even after his Fragile X patients—fruit flies—are well into adulthood.
Humans with Fragile X lack a particular gene, FMR1, that produces a protein crucial to the functioning of synapses, the spaces that connect brain cells to each other. Jongens's flies are also missing that gene, and they suffer some of the same symptoms as humans, such as short-lived memories. For instance, scientists can train normal male flies not to get too amorous by pairing them with females that aren't receptive. Translated to humans: if a guy strikes out at the local bar, he may stop trying entirely. Male Fragile X flies are more like the guys who won't give up: they forget their training and court any female that comes their way.
Jongens, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, has treated his randy adult Fragile X flies with both lithium chloride and another type of drug called an mGluR antagonist, which inhibits the effects of a molecule that may cause the brain's synapses to stop working. "What we've found is very striking," he says. To parents of Fragile X kids, it must sound like the understatement of the century: unlike their unmedicated counterparts, the treated flies appear to remember their training. Moreover, some Fragile X patients already take lithium to stabilize their wildly swinging moods. They may have been reaping cognitive benefits all along, unbeknownst to their doctors. Randi Hagerman, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician in California, has started giving her patients cognitive tests along with their lithium. If indeed the patients improve, doctors may be closer to understanding how to approach treating mental disabilities.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7369515/site/newsweek/
Humans with Fragile X lack a particular gene, FMR1, that produces a protein crucial to the functioning of synapses, the spaces that connect brain cells to each other. Jongens's flies are also missing that gene, and they suffer some of the same symptoms as humans, such as short-lived memories. For instance, scientists can train normal male flies not to get too amorous by pairing them with females that aren't receptive. Translated to humans: if a guy strikes out at the local bar, he may stop trying entirely. Male Fragile X flies are more like the guys who won't give up: they forget their training and court any female that comes their way.
Jongens, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, has treated his randy adult Fragile X flies with both lithium chloride and another type of drug called an mGluR antagonist, which inhibits the effects of a molecule that may cause the brain's synapses to stop working. "What we've found is very striking," he says. To parents of Fragile X kids, it must sound like the understatement of the century: unlike their unmedicated counterparts, the treated flies appear to remember their training. Moreover, some Fragile X patients already take lithium to stabilize their wildly swinging moods. They may have been reaping cognitive benefits all along, unbeknownst to their doctors. Randi Hagerman, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician in California, has started giving her patients cognitive tests along with their lithium. If indeed the patients improve, doctors may be closer to understanding how to approach treating mental disabilities.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7369515/site/newsweek/