Nat Neurosci: key genes regulate both autism and ADHD

December 3, 2019 / bioun / -- researchers from the national psychiatry program ipsych found that autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have the same genetic variation This new knowledge has further deepened our understanding of the biological causes of two kinds of child psychosis In Denmark, about 1% of schoolchildren are autistic, while 2% to 3% are diagnosed with ADHD Autism and ADHD are different developmental disorders, but they can have some common symptoms For example, autistic children may exhibit violent or aggressive behavior, impulsivity, problems in school and social relations - and ADHD children can share these same symptoms (image source: www Pixabay Com) researchers at ipsych, the largest research project in Danish psychiatry, have found that similarity between the two symptoms can be linked to changes in the same gene The new study is the largest ever to look at rare mutations in the genome of people with ADHD and autism "The fact that mutations are found in the same degree and in the same genes in autistic and ADHD children suggests that the biological mechanisms involved may be the same," said Anders B ø rglum, professor and lead researcher at Aarhus University The results were published in the international journal Nature Neuroscience "This is the first time that a comprehensive genome mapping has been carried out for ADHD and autism The results show that the DNA of children with ADHD has the same number of harmful gene mutations as that of children with autism," said Anders B ø rglum These findings directly point out the biological mechanism of ADHD and autism "In this study, the gene most susceptible to mutations in ADHD or autism is the so-called MAP1A gene This gene is involved in the formation of the physical structure of nerve cells - their internal 'skeleton', so to speak, this gene is very important for the development of the brain " Anders B ø rglum explained This is the first time that the gene has been linked to the development of ADHD and autism, and mutations found by researchers significantly increase the risk of autism and / or ADHD "We found an increased burden of mutations in ADHD and autism that disrupt or severely affect the MAP1A gene, whereas very few of the control subjects had such changes in their genes," which means that the risk of ADHD and autism increased more than 15 times in people with this mutation The researchers analyzed the genes of about 8000 people with autism and / or ADHD, and 5000 people without either disease, all from Denmark The study also included about 45000 international control subjects who had no mental illness "This study shows that by studying more people in a similar way through extensive DNA sequencing, more ADHD and autism genes can be directly identified, thus providing a more complete mechanism of biological causal mechanism and possible treatment methods." Origin of information: austism and ADHD share genes origin: F Kyle satterstrom et al Austism specification discorder and attention deficient hyperactivity discorder have a similar burden of rare protein truncating variants Nature Neuroscience, 2019; 22 (12): 1961 doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0527-8