Possible Treatment For Neurological Disorder Rett Syndrome -- Most Common Basis Of Autism In Girls

ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2009) — Using injections of a small derivate of the protein insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have successfully treated a mouse model of the devastating neurological disorder Rett syndrome.

Rett syndrome is an inherited disease affecting one of 10,000 girls born and is the most common basis of autism in girls. Infants with the disease appear to develop normally for their first six to 18 months, at which point their movement and language skills begin to deteriorate. Loss of speech, reduced head size, breathing and heart rhythm irregularities, and autistic-like symptoms are common by age four. Some symptoms may be mediated with prescription drugs, but no cure or truly effective treatment for the disease exists.

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