{"id":5862,"date":"2019-09-18T11:32:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T15:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/?page_id=5862"},"modified":"2019-09-18T11:33:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T15:33:17","slug":"adnp-brain-development-gene-emerges-as-strong-autism-gene-candidate","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/research\/what-we-study\/adnp-old\/adnp-brain-development-gene-emerges-as-strong-autism-gene-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong><em>ADNP<\/em> \u2013 Brain development gene emerges as strong autism gene candidate<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>News article by Kate Yandell in the <span class=\"notranslate\">Simons Foundation<\/span>\u2019s online publication <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spectrumnews.org\/\">Spectrum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spectrumnews.org\/news\/brain-development-gene-emerges-as-strong-autism-candidate\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The article discusses research about children who were found to have\u00a0changes in the <em>ADNP<\/em>\u00a0gene. The main take-home messages are as follows.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The\u00a0<em>ADNP<\/em>\u00a0gene:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plays an important role in brain development<\/li>\n<li>May affect facial features. (From the article:\u00a0<em>\u201cPeople with ADNP mutations tend to have high hairlines, prominent foreheads, and thin upper lips.\u201d<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Interacts with a group of genes called the BAF<em>\u00a0<\/em>complex, which is also being studied by <span class=\"notranslate\">Simons Searchlight<\/span> investigators.<\/li>\n<li>Is associated with features of autism. But not every child with a change in\u00a0<em>ADNP<\/em> will be formally diagnosed with autism. Most will show a few features.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While the effects of different variations in this gene have not yet been well defined, we do have information about several children whose families have contributed information to research.\u00a0<em>\u201cAmong the 12 children \u2014 7 male and 5 female \u2014 described so far, all have developmental delay, ranging from mild to severe. Apart from autism, these children also seem to have overly flexible joints and low muscle tone, are prone to infections, and have vision and gastrointestinal problems.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Because we have only learned from a small number of cases, it is important for our researchers to study a larger number of children with changes in the\u00a0<em>ADNP <\/em>gene. <span class=\"notranslate\">Simons Searchlight<\/span> wants to collect this information to better understand what features are associated with\u00a0changes in the <em>ADNP<\/em> gene.\u00a0<strong>This is why it\u2019s important for families who have children with changes in\u00a0<em>ADNP<\/em>\u00a0to participate in <span class=\"notranslate\">Simons Searchlight<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With contributions of information from more families, we can start answering questions like these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What percentage of children with a change in\u00a0<em>ADNP<\/em> have a diagnosis of autism?<\/li>\n<li>What kinds of health problems are most common for these children? What are uncommon?<\/li>\n<li>How can we tailor education plans and therapies to make sure children with this gene change are getting what\u2019s best for them?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ADNP \u2013 Brain development gene emerges as strong autism gene candidate News article by Kate Yandell in the Simons Foundation\u2019s online publication Spectrum. Read the article here. The article discusses research about children who were found to have\u00a0changes in the ADNP\u00a0gene. The main take-home messages are as follows. The\u00a0ADNP\u00a0gene: Plays an important role in brain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":398,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5862"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5865,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5862\/revisions\/5865"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simonssearchlight.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}