Scientists believe experiments conducted on mice may hold the key to a ‘cure’ for autism.
According to the Daily Star, an American study has put forward the theory the brains of adults can be ‘opened up’.
And the hope is this will permit the most complex organ in the human body to be tinkered with to prevent brains from reducing their own ‘plasticity’.
Brain plasticity is heralded as its ability to change and adapt throughout a person’s lifetime.
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One academic approach to autism considers how the brain may be ‘disrupted’ during a key period of maturation between childhood and adulthood.
And a study published this week by Tufts University School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine holds treatments for the disorder may be possible after ‘rewiring’ the brains of mice.
A team of scientists at the US university found removing a molecule responsible for maturation increased plasticity in the brains of mice of various ages.
The hope is this process will also apply to humans – and can be triggered repeatedly.
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Professor Thomas Biederer wrote: “Our study identified a fundamental mechanism that controls brain plasticity, and perhaps most exciting, we can show that a process in the adult brain actively suppresses plasticity.”
He also said the process might include the possibility of targeting “the mechanism to re-open plasticity in the mature brain, which could be relevant for treating disorders like autism”.
Another contributor to the project, PhD scientist Adema Ribic, noted the team had “found a way to increase plasticity in a very controlled way, both spatially and temporally.”
She continued: “Combined with the latest approaches in genetic manipulation, this may prove to be a new path to tackle both childhood disorders and brain injury in adults.”
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