Image Credit:  Rett Syndrome Research Trust
[Source:  Medical News Today]
Statins, a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs found in millions of medicine cabinets, may hold the key to finding a treatment for Rett Syndrome, a severe autistic disorder that affects young girls.
The Connecticut-based Rett Syndrome Research Trust (RSRT) has sponsored work to identify a number of targetable genes that act on the Rett gene, MECP2 (methyl-CpG-binding protein 2), in mice. Results of the cholesterol metabolism in Rett syndrome study are published in the journal Nature Genetics.
MECP2 turns other genes on or off by disrupting chromatin, the DNA-protein mix that makes up chromosomes. This was well known to be linked to Rett Syndome, which affects about one in 10,000 girls in Western countries, causing them to lose speech, mobility and use of their hands while still toddlers.
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