Climbing a new path allows chemists to ascend cancer’s steepest research challengesThe cancer gene MYC drives unrestrained cancer cell growth, but has proved a difficult drug target. Nature-inspired compounds succeed by chopping up MYC’s RNA.A collab
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Mutations to Dyrk1a gene lead to brain undergrowth; an existing drug rescues the condition in newborn mice
A genetic mutation linked to autism causes significant undergrowth of brain tissue. An existing medicine appears to rescue the condition in mouse studies.
Damage to the autism-associated gene Dyrk1a, sets off a cascade of problems in developing mouse brains, resulting in abnormal growth-factor signaling, undergrowth of neurons, smaller-than-average brain size, and, eventually, autism-like behaviors, a new study from Scripps Research, Florida, finds.
The study from neuroscientist Damon Page, PhD, describes a new mechanism underlying the brain undergrowth seen in individuals with Dyrk1a mutations. Page’s team used those insights to target the affected pathway with an existing medicine, a growth hormone. It restored normal brain growth in the Dyrk1a mutant mice, Page says.