Natasa Blagojevic-Stokic: Exploring the Role of ATP and Calcium Homeostasis in Autism
Natasa Blagojevic-Stokic, Content and Growth Strategist at The BRAIN Foundation, Co-Founder and CMO at Mr Run, Digital Marketing Consultant at CharmHealth, shared The BRAIN Foundation‘s post on LinkedIn:
“At this point it is almost a given that low brain ATP energy levels and disturbed calcium homeostasis are at the core of what we call ‘autism‘.
But even when 100% confirmed, many important questions will remain – the many ‘Why’s‘ (see my next post about some prenatal toxic exposures messing up with these energy- and calcium-handling pathways) and especially ‘What to do about it’ – prevention and treatments. Onwards.”
The BRAIN Foundation shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article by Jieyu Wang et al., published in Molecular Neurobiology, adding:
“Disruption of mitochondrial calcium-energy coupling could be a key mechanistic feature of autism and a possible diagnostic biomarker.
A recently published study by Wang et al. at Harbin Medical University identified a three-gene mitochondrial ‘signature’ that could help diagnose autism.
Starting from the observation that mitochondrial dysfunction is frequently reported in ASD, the authors integrated and reanalysed transcriptomic datasets from post-mortem brains, concentrating on genes related to mitochondrial function.
They first identified 22 mitochondrial genes associated with ASD, then refined this set to three ‘hub’ genes: IDH3A, MRPL2 and CHCHD4. By looking at the expression of those three genes together, the authors could distinguish ASD from control samples.
They then used the BTBR autism-model mice to confirm that those key genes were also reduced in an independent experimental system.
Their pathway analyses pointed to downregulated mitochondrial energy and altered calcium handling, suggesting that impaired coupling between brain energy production and calcium homeostasis may be a core feature in at least a subset of autism.”
Title: Mitochondrial Gene Signature Reveals Novel Diagnostic Biomarkers for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Authors: Jieyu Wang, Zeyu Cheng, Mingyuan Liu, Yuting Zhang, Yi Jiang, Tianyu Liu, Junyu Ren, Lijie Wu, Mingyang Zou, Caihong Sun
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