An Academia Sinica study linking low zinc concentrations often detected in autistic people to genetic defects in two proteins suggests that autism-like behavior could be greatly ameliorated by boosting the transmission of zinc to the brain with the help of an antibiotic.
Academia Sinica research fellow and project leader Hsueh Yi-ping (薛一蘋) said her team obtained the results after performing an experiment on mice, which she said are sociable animals and therefore perfect test subjects.
Scientists compared the interactions of test mice by placing the subjects in a box, mice that had been unchanged, mice with their Tbr1 and Shank2 proteins “knocked off” and another “stranger” mouse.
Photo: Tang Chia-ling, Taipei Times
They found that unchanged mice engaged in high-level interaction with the “stranger” mouse, while mice with Tbr1 and Shank2 deficiencies interacted very little.
Hsueh’s team had previously determined that Tbr1 is a contributing factor of autism, while a team led by South Korean scientist and project coleader Eunjoon Kim discovered that Shank2 is also implicated in the condition.
Both deficiencies hamper the transmission of zinc ions to the NMDAR (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor, impairing function.
About 30 percent of children with autism suffer from zinc deficiency.
The researchers used clioquinol, an antibiotic used to increase zinc absorption, on the mice displaying autistic behavior and found that they began behaving in a way almost identical to that of the unchanged mice as both the level of activity and interaction with the “stranger” mouse increased, Hsueh said.
Clioquinol helps to move zinc from a presynaptic terminal to postsynaptic sites in the brain, where it undergoes a chain of chemical reactions before being picked up by the NMDAR receptor. The research teams concluded that the improvements displayed by the autistic mice were achieved with the presence of zinc.
Hsueh said that previous projects had determined that autism is linked to zinc deficiency, but the research undertaken by Academia Sinica and the South Korean researchers is the first to provide a scientific explanation for the phenomenon by establishing that the social inhibitions caused by autism can be changed by revitalizing the NMDAR receptor.
Hsueh said the results from the experiment conducted on mice can be extrapolated to humans, with a higher than 90 percent relevance between the two species.
She said that as clioquinol is a prescription drug permitted in Taiwan, her team hopes psychiatrists will prescribe the drug to suitable patients.
Citing US research, she said that autism is becoming more prevalent, with the chance of children developing the condition rising from one in every 88 children to one in every 68.
The scientific community believes that there are at least 900 genes in humans that could lead to autism, and that it is likely that the therapy can be used to target other genetic defects to improve autistic conditions, she said.
Hsueh recommends that people with autism who are diagnosed with zinc deficiency caused by the underexpression of the NMDAR receptor to increase their zinc intake by eating food high in zinc, such as oysters. She added that meat, which is rich in protein, helps boost zinc absorption.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods