Paris — A group of researchers from the Centre Hospitalier Sainte Anne in Paris, France conducted a study to examine common genetic traits possibly shared by individuals with autism who display similar clinical features.
The scientists who conducted the study that was recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry made use of the data available on the Simons Simplex Collection, which collected information from about 2,576 autism simplex families.
In the study, the scientists found that individuals with autism who display similar clinical features do not necessarily share the same genetic variation— which has long been suspected as a key factor in the possible cause of autism.
Biological Psychiatry Editor Dr. John Krystal said:
“This study did not provide good evidence that selecting patients with similar symptoms results in a greater ability to find autism genes”
The researchers hope their findings would pave way for other studies involving the search for the causes of autism to take a different and much clearer path.
The research’s first author, Dr. Pauline Chaste, explained:
“We hope our study is a step towards a new paradigm for studies involving the relationship between psychiatric phenotypes and genotypes. Most previous studies have sought to refine or narrow phenotypic variation irrespective of its impact on genetic variation, with the expectation that such refinement will improve detection of genetic variation increasing risk for a disorder.”
Source: Medical Xpress website: Genetic analysis says no such thing as ‘pure autism’