Scientists have genetically engineered monkeys, who mimic autistic behaviors so that scientists can test potential therapies on them, that will yield more answers about the disorder and also pave the way for potential treatments, West Hawaii Today reports.
The monkeys displayed "very similar behaviors related to human autism patients, including repetitive behaviors, increased anxiety and most importantly, defects in social interactions," said Zilong Qiu, a leader of the research at the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.
The research was published Monday in the journal Nature.
The team is now imaging the brains of the monkeys, "trying to identify the deficiency in the brain circuits that is responsible for the autism like behavior."
Earlier autism research on mice has not yielded good results because the complexity and variability of autism is difficult to study in less-advanced animals.
"Mice are not in the same league when you're talking about doing models of social cognition and interaction," said Jonathan Sebat, chief of the Beyster Center of Psychiatric Genomics at the University of California San Diego, who was not involved in the monkey research.
The monkeys in the newly published research did not exhibit every aspect of autism or every aspect of the genetic autismlike disorder.
That disorder, MECP2 duplication syndrome, occurs when people, especially boys, inherit two copies of the MECP2 gene.
Zoghbi said the monkeys only carried MECP2 in neurons, not throughout the brain, as happens in humans.
"The model shows us that you can make transgenic monkeys using this protein and you can get behavioral symptoms," she said. "Is this model like the human disease? That's where the differences arise."
However, some experts said in some circumstances, monkeys could help scientists better understand how autistic brains work and the effects of approaches such as gene therapy or medication.
Also, monkeys, with longer life cycles than mice, may offer better opportunities to observe autism developing from infancy.
"I'm cautiously optimistic about the findings," said Dr. Sarika Peters, a clinical researcher in autism at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
"This could be one possible animal model with relevance to at least a subset of individuals with autism."
