Variants in Trust Hormone Receptor Up the Risk for Autism

Genetic variations that tweak the brain's release of oxytocin — a hormone involved in social bonding and establishing trust — may increase the risk of developing autism or autistic traits, according to three new studies published in the past few months.One of the studies also finds, for the first time, that oxytocin regulation in people with autism is partly controlled by epigenetic changes, which can turn genes on or off without altering the underlying code.Oxytocin has been linked to autism for nearly two decades, and the hormone is already being doled out in several small clinical trials to treat the disorder. But the new reports are part of a growing wave of interest in the precise nature of its involvement."The field is really new," says Sue Carter, professor of psychiatry at University of Illinois at Chicago, who was not involved in either new study.Read more at...SFARI, February 2010.