They all suffer from the same condition, but none of the children with autism suffer from the same genetic mutation, new study shows.
A new study, published Monday, in the Nature Medicine, journal, showed that even though children with autism suffer from the same condition, they don’t share the same genetic mutation. To further proceed with the study, there had to be sequenced the entire genome on different patients, explained, doctor Stephen Schere from the Hospital for Sick Children and director of the Centre for Applied Genomics, in Toronto, Canada.
Researchers have already been aware of the multitude of differences among autisms cases, but these new findings put a stamp on it. It shows that a full evaluation of the genome of each person could determine how to best understand and use the information of their genetic material to treat autism, added Schere.
For the experiment, scientists have studied the genetic material of 85 families, each having two children suffering from autism. They used whole genome sequencing to determine any genetic mutations in the children. The results, showed that there were no similarities in any of the autism cases, even if the children were from the same family.
Doctor Schere, explained that every single child with autism is like as unique as a snowflake, and each are different from one another. He added, that, to their surprise, not even brothers suffering from autism, don’t share the same type of autism.
Such an insight, could be very helpful for hospitals and doctors, who are often studying the older child with autism to gather information and be able to diagnose the second child. Also, until now, clinics, have used genetic features from the family, to determine whether the parents are prone to having another child with autism.
The findings of the study will have a deep impact in genetic researches and analysis of DNA. For a full comprehension of the type of autism on each children, researchers have to look beyond their DNA and analyze their entire genome.
All the information collected for the research, was a small piece of a larger project called MSSNG, under the lead of Autism Speaks and Google. The purpose of the project is to arrive to sequence the genome of 10,000 families with autistic children and share all the information, as an open source, available for all the scientists all over the world.
Image Source: Redorbit


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