Key Findings
Female brains regulate autism-related proteins more tightly than male brains, possibly preventing the development of autism in females. Understanding the connection between differential protein regulation in the brain and autism spectrum disorders could potentially lead to new pharmacological treatments.
About the CO-Author
Xuanmao Chen, Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences
Contact information: Xuanmao.Chen@unh.edu, 603-862-4542, Chen Lab website
This research first published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.
Researchers: Y. Zhou, L. Qiu, A. Sterpka, F. Chu, and X. Chen
UNH researchers are one step closer to understanding why autism is four times more common in boys than in girls after identifying and characterizing the connection of certain proteins in the brain to autism spectrum disorders.
“Our study is the first to look at the sex-biased regulation of proteins in the brain and how they may play a role in affecting abnormal changes in the body that result in autism,” says Xuanmao (Mao) Chen, assistant professor of neurobiology and lead author of a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. “Our results suggest that proteins in the female brain, particularly autism-related proteins, are more tightly regulated than those in the male brain, possibly helping to prevent the development of autism in females,” says Chen.
“Our results suggest that proteins in the female brain, particularly autism-related proteins, are more tightly regulated than those in the male brain, possibly helping to prevent the development of autism in females.”
Chen, who is a lead investigator in UNH’s Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research, says that this National Institutes of Health-funded research is still in the early phase with mouse models and that more studies are needed, but he is hopeful that it may open up a new research direction and one day could possibly lead to a new pharmacological treatment.
This work was supported by the University of New Hampshire Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research and the National Institutes of Health.
