risk factors https://www.autismspeaks.org/taxonomy/term/16751/0 en Prematurity & Autism https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2012/08/10/prematurity-autism <p><strong><em>Do we know how long it takes a premature baby to catch up in brain development? Is there anything parents can do to reduce autism risk during this period?</em></strong></p> <p><em><img alt="" src="http://www.autismspeaks.org/sites/default/files/blog/emily_de_los_reyes_2.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 140px; float: left; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; " />This week&rsquo;s &ldquo;Got Questions?&rdquo; answer comes from two experts affiliated with<img alt="" src="http://www.autismspeaks.org/sites/default/files/blog/judith_gardner_resized_100.png" style="width: 100px; height: 128px; float: right; " /> Autism Speaks. <strong>Pediatric neurologist Emily de los Reyes</strong>, M.D., (left) specializes in neurodevelopmental disabilities at Nationwide Children&rsquo;s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, one of 17 Autism Speaks </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/resources-programs/autism-treatment-network/air-p-hrsa-funded-initiative"><em>Autism Treatment Network</em></a><em> centers. <strong>Psychologist Judith Gardner</strong>, Ph.D., (right) supervises the Infant Development Follow-up Program at the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, in Staten Island, New York. Dr. Gardner is the recipient of an Autism Speaks research grant &ndash; &ldquo;</em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/grants/very-early-behavioral-indicators-asd-risk-among-nicu-infants-prospective-study?destination=about-us%2Fgrant-search%2Fresults%2Ftaxonomy%3A9771+Gardner"><em>Very Early Behavioral Indicators of ASD Risk in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Infants</em></a><em>.&rdquo;</em></p> <p><strong>Dr. de los Reyes:</strong> Premature infants generally &ldquo;catch up&rdquo; in development by two years of age. You are correct that they are at higher risk for developing neurodevelopmental disabilities. The most common factors predisposing infants to autism include low birth weight, extreme prematurity (before 26 weeks), intrauterine infection during the pregnancy and being a boy. Infants with injuries to the <a href="http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/p/cerebellum.htm">cerebellum</a> (the area of the hindbrain that controls muscle movement) appear to have a particularly high risk of autism.</p> <p>We advise parents and pediatricians to closely monitor premature infants after discharge. Ideally, these babies have a medical team that includes specialists trained to track the development of premature infants.</p> <p>Any delays in speech, language or motor development require prompt assessment and referral to an appropriate therapist (speech, occupational, physical, etc.) It&rsquo;s equally important to monitor for any hearing loss, as this will predispose to language delays. Similarly, your baby&rsquo;s developmental team should watch for and address any problems with eyesight related to prematurity or disorders of eye alignment.</p> <p>In addition, you can help foster your premature infant&rsquo;s development with good nutrition to promote healthy postnatal weight gain. (Talk with your physician and/or an infant nutrition expert for further advice.) &nbsp;</p> <p>As with all children, early diagnosis of autism provides the opportunity for early intervention that can improve outcomes. Pediatricians can screen for autism as early as the one-year well-baby checkup.</p> <p><strong>Dr. Gardner:</strong> Improvements in medical technology are allowing babies to survive at much earlier gestational ages than ever before. However, many babies born very preterm with extremely low birth weight have associated medical or development problems. These include a higher risk of developing autism. As a result, it&#39;s crucial that we conduct further research to deepen our understanding of the long-term effects of preterm birth &ndash; including autism risk.</p> <p>The last trimester is a time of significant growth in a baby&#39;s size and weight. However, most crucial brain development occurs in the first and second trimesters. During this early pregnancy period, important brainstem mechanisms form the foundation for subsequent brain development. So far, research indicates that increased risk for autism traces most strongly to what happens during the first and second trimesters.</p> <p> This doesn&#39;t mean that the last trimester is unimportant. We see renewed interest in the health of near-term infants &ndash; those born between 35 and 37 weeks of pregnancy. They may be more likely than full-term infants to have certain lung, circulation and feeding problems. For this reason, most obstetricians won&#39;t deliver babies early for reasons of &quot;convenience.&quot;</p> <p>As for &quot;catching up,&quot; it&#39;s helpful to view a preterm baby&#39;s development from his or her post-conception age, rather than birth age. Ten weeks after birth, for example, you can expect a baby born at pregnancy week 30 to behave like a full-term newborn. It helps to remember that 10 out of 40 weeks represents a large percentage a newborn&rsquo;s life (25 percent). By contrast, 10 weeks out of 2 years is a modest 10 percent. This helps explain why we generally don&rsquo;t see developmental differences at 2 years.</p> <p> To directly answer your question, my advice would be to treat a preterm baby like any other baby. Talk to the baby. Hold the baby. Love and play with the baby. If your baby is born just a month early or less, try not to worry about rare and unlikely problems.</p> <p>At the same time, it remains important to monitor the development of any preterm, medically fragile or otherwise at-risk baby. This includes appropriate autism screening and follow-up assessments and, if needed, early intervention services.</p> <p><em>Editor&rsquo;s note: Please also see our </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/learn-signs"><em>Learn the Signs</em></a><em> page and our automated </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/diagnosis/m-chat"><em>Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT)</em></a><em> screening tool. Autism Speaks continues to fund a wealth of research into the </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/grant-search/taxonomy%3A10001"><em>factors that predispose</em></a><em> an infant to autism and into </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/grant-search/taxonomy%3A10371.10421"><em>early interventions</em></a><em> that can improve outcomes. You can explore these and related studies using this website </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/grant-search"><em>Grant Search</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p> <strong>Got more questions? Please send them to </strong><a href="mailto:GotQuestions@autismspeaks.org"><strong><em>GotQuestions@autismspeaks.org</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> autism autism spectrum Autism Treatment Network Emily de los Reyes Got Questions? Judith Gardner low birth weight prematurity risk factors Science Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:42:48 +0000 Jessica Sachs 194416 at https://www.autismspeaks.org What is Epigenetics and What Does it Have to do with Autism? https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2012/01/20/what-epigenetics-and-what-does-it-have-do-autism <p><em><img alt="" src="http://www.autismspeaks.org/sites/default/files/blog/alycia_halladay.jpg" style="width: 119px; height: 179px; " /></em></p> <p><em>This week&rsquo;s</em> &ldquo;<em>Got Questions?&rdquo; answer comes from Alycia Halladay, PhD, Autism Speaks director of research for environmental sciences.</em></p> <p>If you&rsquo;ve been following autism research in recent years, you have probably read&mdash;many times&mdash;that familial, or inherited, risk is seldom the whole picture. A few inherited genes are sufficient by themselves to cause autism. But most so-called &ldquo;autism genes&rdquo; only increase the risk that an infant will go on to develop this developmental disorder. As is the case in many complex diseases, it appears that autism often results from a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental triggers. This is where epigenetics comes in. Epigenetics is the study of the factors that control gene expression, and this control is mediated by chemicals that surround a gene&rsquo;s DNA. Environmental epigenetics looks at how outside influences modify these epigenetic chemicals, or &ldquo;markers,&rdquo; and so affect genetic activity.</p> <p>It is important to remember that scientists use the term &ldquo;environment&rdquo; to refer to much more than pollutants and other chemical exposures. Researchers use this term to refer to pretty much any influence beyond genetic mutation. Parental age at time of conception, for example, is an environmental influence associated with increased risk of autism, as are birth complications that involve oxygen deprivation to an infant&rsquo;s brain. Because epigenetics gives us a way to look at the interaction between genes and environment, it holds great potential for identifying ways to prevent or reduce the risk of autism. It may also help us develop medicines and other interventions that can target disabling symptoms.</p> <p>We have written about epigenetics previously on this blog (<a href="http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/03/15/meeting-highlights-environmental-influences-on-genetic-risk-factors-for-asd/">here</a> and <a href="http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2010/11/19/what-is-epigenetics-does-this-new-field-hold-promise-for-understanding-the-causes-of-asd/">here</a>). So in this answer, I&rsquo;d like to focus on the progress reported at a recent meeting hosted by Autism Speaks. The Environmental Epigenetics of Autism Spectrum Disorders symposium, held in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 8, was the first of its kind. The meeting brought together more than 30 leaders in autism neurobiology, genetics and epidemiology with investigators in the epigenetics of other complex disorders to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations and identify opportunities for future studies.</p> <p><a href="http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/faculty/?PMID=9575">Rob Waterland</a>, of Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, described epidemiological studies and animal research that suggested how maternal nutrition during pregnancy can affect epigenetic markers in the brain cells of offspring. <a href="http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/our-faculty/profile?uni=jh2678">Julie Herbstman</a>, of Columbia University, described research that associated epigenetic changes in umbilical cord blood with a mother&rsquo;s exposure to air pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are already infamous for their association with cancer and heart disease.</p> <p><a href="http://www.sickkids.ca/AboutSickKids/Directory/People/W/Rosanna-Weksberg-Staff-Profile.html">Rosanna Weksberg</a>, of the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto, discussed findings that suggest how assisted reproductive technology may lead to changes in epigenetically regulated gene expression. This was of particular interest because assisted reproduction has been associated with ASD. Taking this one step further, <a href="http://skinner.wsu.edu/piskinner.html">Michael Skinner</a>, of Washington State University, discussed &ldquo;transgenerational epigenetic disease&rdquo; and described research suggesting that exposures during pregnancy produce epigenetic changes that are then inherited through subsequent generations.</p> <p><a href="http://www.bcm.edu/cmb/?pmid=2040">Arthur Beaudet</a>, of Baylor College of Medicine, discussed a gene mutation that controls availability of the amino acid carnitine. This genetic mutation has been found to be more prevalent among children with ASD than among non-affected children, suggesting that it might be related to some subtypes of autism. Further study is needed to follow up on the suggestion that dietary supplementation of carnitine might help individuals with ASD who have this mutation. Caution is needed, however. As <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/researcher/38939013_Laura_R_Schaevitz">Laura Schaevitz</a>, of Tufts University in Massachusetts, pointed out, studies with animal models of autism suggest that dietary supplementation may produce only temporary improvements in symptoms of neurodevelopmental disorders.</p> <p>So what does this all mean for research that aims to help those currently struggling with autism? The meeting participants agreed that the role of epigenetics in ASD holds great promise but remains understudied and insufficiently understood. For clearer answers, they called for more research examining epigenetic changes in brain tissues. This type of research depends on bequeathed postmortem brain tissue, and Autism Speaks <a href="http://www.autismtissueprogram.org/site/c.nlKUL7MQIsG/b.5574295/k.E3B4/Overview.htm">Autism Tissue Program</a> is one of the field&rsquo;s most important repositories. (Find more information on becoming an ATP family <a href="http://www.autismtissueprogram.org/site/c.nlKUL7MQIsG/b.5574295/k.E3B4/Overview.htm">here</a>).</p> <p>The field also needs large epidemiological studies looking at epigenetic markers in blood samples taken over the course of a lifetime. One such study is the Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI). More information on participating in EARLI can be found <a href="http://www.earlistudy.org/">here</a>. Autism Speaks remains committed to supporting and guiding environmental epigenetics as a highly important area of research.&nbsp; We look forward to reporting further results in the coming year and years.</p> <p><em>Got more questions? Send them to </em><a href="mailto:gotquestions@autismspeaks.org"><em>gotquestions@autismspeaks.org</em></a><em>.</em> <em>Read more autism research news and perspective on the </em><a href="http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/"><em>science page</em></a><em>.</em> <strong> </strong></p> <div class="field field-wp-post-id"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> 16808 </div> </div> </div> https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/2012/01/20/what-epigenetics-and-what-does-it-have-do-autism#comments Alycia Halladay ASD autism Autism Speaks autism spectrum disorder environment environmental epigenetics environmental factors epigenetics Gene-Environment Interactions genetics risk factors Science Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:37:36 +0000 126631 at https://www.autismspeaks.org