Researchers have found that a prenatal supplement called carnitine could protect against a certain type of autism. The supplement is already available on the market and will soon be recommended officially for women of childbearing age for its ability to prevent autism risks in babies.
A new study found that even before they get pregnant, women should be exposed to sufficient amounts of this nutrient.
The new study was published in the journal Cell Reports. Zhigang Xie, the study's lead author and Ph.D. assistant research scientist at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, has designed a new technology for marking and analyzing individual neural stem cells in a real developing brain. According to the scientist, previously it was very difficult to study neural stem cells in a real brain environment, but with this new technology this becomes possible.
By using the new method of research, scientists have found that neural stem cells unable to produce carnitine don't behave properly. However, when neural stem cells genetically at risk are supplied with carnitine, they don't have the same problems.
According to Vytas A. Bankaitis, Ph.D., the E.L. Wehner-Welch Foundation Chair in Chemistry at the Texas A&M College of Medicine and Xie's collaborator, this technology has not been used to study the link between carnitine and neural stem cells. The new application of this technology is crucial in studying autism spectrum disorders where it is necessary to consider the entire cellular environment.
Carnitine has the role of transporting fatty acids into mitochondria that converts them into energy. Some other studies have shown that mutations in a gene required for carnitine biosynthesis are linked with risk for development of autism. However, until now, the mechanisms of that association have been unclear.
According to Science Daily, the work of the research team was funded by the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The study is important because many Americans are suffering from autism, and the annual cost of autism management is estimated at around $236 billion in the United States alone.
