Scientists at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) have discovered that when a normal cellular cleanup process is disrupted, mice start behaving in ways that resemble human symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia. They found that loss of normal autophagy, the process that recycles damaged cellular components such as proteins, influences how brain cells react to inhibitory signals from each other and contributes to the behavioral changes. This intricate signaling pathway could be a new therapeutic target for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.
* This article was originally published here
