Genetics with Autism

Scientists wonder how autism is spread through genetics. Or what are the side effects that come with Autism.  Unfortunately Autism is such a complicated diseaseit in taking multiple years to find out all this information. Autism is known as pervasive developmental disorder. A child with PDD usually has trouble communicating with others or usually has issues with vocalizing. People with autism usually have trouble socializing with other people compared to people who don’t have autism. It shows this by statistics that one in 150 8-year-olds has autism. Because research has suggested that, the earlier in life an autistic child can be given specialized education and therapy, the sooner they get this help there is a higher chance for them to improve their social skills.

My second question was what causes autism?  Scientist have researched that a mother of identical twins  will more than likely  get the gene that develops autism then non identical twins, because of the gene material.  For as long as scientists have studied autism genes with twins, they have found chromosomal and statistical evidence which is the development toward autism.  Scientist have found that most behaviors are not linked to single genes, but have found that patterns of Mendelian inheritance do not have an effect on behavioral genetics studies. Even though a single gene cannot create normal behaviors, scientists have found that mutations can be the number reason, while a single gene cannot create normal behaviors. Mutations are single genes which disrupt the original gene. Geneticists do not have consistent methods of investigating whether and how genes might influence behavior.

Lastly, my third question was how are scientists trying to fix this disease? The trouble with autism is that it
is such a complex disorder scientist are realizing it’s hard to understand why and how autism is what it is.  Another
goal of genetic research is to investigate the potential of an approach called pharmacogenetics, this is the study of how an individual’s genetic makeup will affect to the reactions of drugs given.  Physicians have found that some medicines are causing major side effects. For example, a certain medicine causes nausea in 10% of the population and scientists can
determine that those 10% all carry a specific version of a particular gene. Then doctor will try to avoid giving that medication to patients because of the negative side effects. A single gene can have effects on behavior, which can disrupt normal behavior. Scientist are getting a better grip on why these genes develop the way they do, and are getting a better
understanding of how to change the genes. According to the article “Desperate for an Autism Cure”  U.S. is increasing the research funding for autism by 15 percent a year. They have also emphasis on clinical applications.  The article also states that the National Institutes of Health allocated $132 million for autism work in 2009, with an additional $64 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, much of which is being earmarked to develop patient registries and other investigative tools. For example, the Simons Foundation and Autism Speaks are private foundations that contributed $79 million in 2008. Most of the private foundations give 27 percent towards investigating treatments, 29 percent on causes, 24 percent on basic biology and 9 percent on diagnosis.

I wrote this paper about autism for many reasons. First, I wanted to know what the effects were to the children when they have autism. I found out that they mostly have troubles with socializing and speaking with other people. Second, I wanted to know what causes autism. I found out that autism is caused by a single gene or a mutation. Third, I wanted to know how scientists are finding a cure for autism. I found out that Autism is a complex disease and it is hard to concept, but scientist are using pharmacogenetics to help children who do end up getting the gene that lead to autism. How are scientists going to further pursue their studies towards Autism? Are they trying to develop medicines to give to Autism patients? Are scientists trying to find ways to stop the single gene before it develops in the child?

5 thoughts on “Genetics with Autism

  1. This blog is very informative and I like learning new things about genetics. It was very interesting to learns about autism and twins, after further research into it I found that if 1 identical twin has autism, there is a 60% chance that the other will as well. there is a much lower possibility of fraternal twins developing autism.
    http://www.dnalc.org/view/869-Autism-and-Twin-Studies-1-.html

  2. This blog was very informative. It focused on the three main points; the effects of autism on children, what causes autism, and if scientists are researching cures for this disease. I found a similar blog, ‘What is Autism?’, that also included this information but was more in depth. The article provided ways to prevent autism in your child. Pregnancy is a fragile time for child growth, and alcohol and drugs can lead to the development of autism. Genetics, however, are a part of autism you cannot control. According to this article, one in every hundred and fifty eight-year-olds have autism. In ‘What is Autism?’, the statistic was one in every eighty-eight eight-year-olds have autism. I did further research and discovered that the data from this blog’s data was from the years 2000 and 2002, and the data from ‘What is Autism?’ is more recent and from 2008. To elaborate on the twin gene statistics, there is a 80-90% that, if one identical twin has autism, the other twin will have it as well. There is only a 3-10%, however, that a fraternal twin will have autism if the other was diagnosed with the disease.

    http://woldbiology.edublogs.org/2013/02/22/what-is-autism/

  3. Good article, it shows the main point and thoroughly explains what autism is and explains the side affects and what happens when someone has autism. It also explains some background history with what scientists and doctors know and don’t know about autism. I do think that scientists and doctors alike should put more effort towards finding more information about autism and maybe we can find out exactly how autism reacts and causes things to work. From what we do know is that it is something to do with the genes, and traits of the person and what determines if the person has autism. Showing numbers and statistics were a good thing to put in the article as well, it shows how common and frequent autism occurs and who and why. Overall good article and good explanation of autism and its facts. I think this website could be helpful in more information and research on autism. http://www.ddiny.org/autism-information/autism-facts.html?gclid=CIKj24iXhr4CFYxcMgodqyYAZA

  4. I have found a lot of this to be true. Autism runs in my family, so I know quite about it. I, in fact, am autistic (yet not severely). When it comes to autism, there is a wide variety of different disorders, called the autism spectrum. Some people have Asperger’s syndrome (which would be what I am closest to), in which it is common for people to be better at speaking than other autistic people yet still have a great deal of communication issues. They also have issues with disruptions of their schedual.

    http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=1&edition=&ts=BD68A7F1DD2A8F95E0C83E8071DD5940_1326295448648&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B127038930

  5. It was a well-written blog post, even though there were some grammar errors, it was good. I didn’t know much about autism before, and I did some research and I thought you might find this site most intresting. I found that autism effects more people at age 3 and effect males more than females. The think that shocks me the most is that autism effects only .5-1% of the world’s population. Anyways, I found your blog intresting and I couldn’t stop read your blog. for more info. go to http://www.acpinternist.org/archives/2009/04/genomics.htm

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