I don’t want to totally downplay the incredible work the researchers are doing, but it’s a long way off from any kind of actual treatments coming from this.
A lot of research is successful on mice that doesn’t actually end up resulting in human treatments for any number of reasons. Even if it could be leveraged into a treatment for humans, we are looking at years and years of further trials and research. Not even mentioning the immense degree of complexity that scientists would be working with.
Still, the work done by China in all sectors, including biology and genetics, never ceases to impress. Even if an autism cure is not viable, the research could be extremely important for other things.
For sure, there’s quite a ways to go from trials with mice to human trial. And very much agree that the progress China is making in all STEM areas is very impressive.
Commenting again just to say I hate how medical science reporting often doesn’t even cite the name of the researchers. Not only is this very disrespectful towards the people who put in a lot of work into the research (and usually even publishing their results for the world to see), but it also makes it incredibly hard to verify the facts of the story.
Naming them only as “Chinese scientists” is just insulting. And now all search results have been poisoned by people only citing what’s in the SCMP article.
this is true for so many fields, in both science and art, the mass of people doing the bulk of the work get no recognition 😐
also
Li Dali, a professor of Life Sciences at East China Normal University, who is not an author on the paper […]
Researcher Chen Jin and his student Zhu Junjie at ShanghaiTech University, who are not authors on the paper […]
An injection to treat autism spectrum disorder might be within reach after a scientific trial on mice shows positive results.
If we’re doing gene editing maybe we solve for shit like sickle cell before erasing neurodivergence idk
Great news on that front, actually
There are indifferent elements of ASD and several detrimental ones, so I think it depends on what they re targeting since ASD is really a cluster of different disorders.
I think it should be 100% voluntary, the last thing I want to hear is people saying that Autism is a disease to be eradicated, I know plenty of people who have it and don’t consider it a disability in any sense. There are admittedly some that I know that don’t like it and the feelings and anxiety that comes with it. I can’t speak to it personally bc I don’t have it but from what I gather (from personal bias admittedly) it’s not something like Polio or Covid or Cancer in which a cure or breakthrough is more important. Just my 2 cents
I agree with that, neurodivergence shouldn’t be seen as a negative. It’s good to have options available for people, but we should also try to structure society in a way that’s as accommodating as possible without people feeling forced to change how their minds work to fit in.
I joined an autistm support group and one of the other participants signed up for a medical trial to ‘cure’ or rather, lessen the effects of autism(something about a zap to rewires the brain done over a few weeks). We talked about the ethics of it for a bit but did end up agreeing that sometimes, being autistic sucks and it’s alienating. To wake up one day, neurotypical and able to pick up on social cues or maintain friendships would be so freeing.
I personally have accepted that my autism is as much of me as my soul so I’m not interested in a ‘cure’, but talking over the woes with other autistic people and hearing relief even at the chance to have it taken away, really changed my worldview.
Side note, we also talked about what a ‘cure’ would even mean because at what point does our being start and our autism end? I’m still skeptic but I hope things work out for that person.
Excuse me what the FUCK?
They really still trying to fucking cure us off the face of the earth huh
This is fucking disgusting and I can’t believe I’m seeing people here reacting in any way positively, especially autistic people!
This is genocidal shit!
“Curing” autism is genocide
Speaking as a relatively high-functioning autistic person, and as a person who definitely perceives those people with autism I know as objectively blessed when compared to their allistic “peers”, I’m trying to read this as the reporter’s white-savior-y take on what may simply be a scientific advance?
All but the first paragraphs are pay walled but, here goes my charitable guess toward the scientists here;
Doctors have discovered how to undo a thing (in mice) that the author of this article describes as causing symptoms of autism. This is useful science I suppose, with it we might one day have the power to cure allism. Alternatively, as other comments have pointed out, there are autistic people who are unable to live “normal” lives (save, for a moment, the argument over what the fuck a “normal” life is and who the fuck thinks they have the right to “save” it). Consider instead an autistic person who wishes they had any choice regarding their autism, it would be cool if the science of neurodivergence had been developed enough to provide them with that choice. Realistically… I bear no illusions that choice might be involved. If doctors in the US had an excuse to call it “helping” when they fuck nonconsensually with someone’s brain, I have no doubt I would be strapped to a fucking bed faster than you can say “free healthcare?”. Between lobotomies and forced sterilization, the US has an undoubted record for society “cleansing”.
Man, it really sucks to find out that even on this site, there’s still people who get upvotes for saying that people like me are something to be “cured”
I agree. This thread has some high levels of reaction. It’s disappointing to see.
Anybody who tries to “vaccinate” my “disease” with this shit better hope they got their blunt force trauma to the skull vaccine first.
Can I take yours then?
Sure. Go hog wild, dude.
This kind of thing is really interesting for what it might teach us about autism and the human brain more generally, but when it comes to the practical applications I just don’t see a future where it doesn’t present a ton of problems. Even when you make it ‘voluntary’, eugenics is dangerous and closely allied with exterminationist sentiment, thinking, and practice.
And it seriously risks, at a minimum, deeply undermining struggles to accommodate rather than erase disabilities. Admittedly this is a step beyond the technical capability, but if a society develops an expectation that some major human variation (be that autism, deafness, blindness, or whatever) be cured rather than accommodated wherever it is a ‘problem’, where does that leave people (or parents) who refuse the cure for themselves (or for their children)? I can easily imagine arguments like ‘if you don’t want problems, just administer the cure! you’re being selfish’, ‘this creates an unnecessary burden’, etc.
A sad development, I’ll now become an ultra-left reactionary maoist and hate on Xi specifically for hating autistic people.
Being able to read body language would be nice, but I doubt it will work on adults.
We don’t even know if it will work in humans yet. They’ve only done tests on mice so far, but the gist of it is that they identified a particular protein and a gene responsible for its production. The gene therapy causes more of the protein to be produced which resulted in behavioral changes in the mice. How that plays out with humans is an open question.
It might do something in humans, but the idea that autism is reducible to genes— and a single gene, at that— strikes me as laughable on its face.
How our whole body grows is a product of the genes ultimately, so the way brain connections form, balances of different proteins, and so on are also governed by our genetic makeup. I agree that it’s obviously a much more complex picture than a single gene. However, if modifying a particular gene does increase production of this protein and that improves the way people are feeling then it’s a tangible benefit. Ultimately that’s the goal here.
I have a feeling I know how it is going to play out with western liberals, though (especially right-wing chuds and anti-vaxx groups): “Ebil CCPP spreading autism via vaccination confirmed!!!”
these are the takes I’m expecting
This is a very upsetting thread what the fuck lemmygrad
I’d appreciate some kind of cure for ADHD or have the option to be neurotypical
For milder forms of autism, treatment should be left up to the person and definitely isn’t necessary.
However, I also know people who have extremely severe forms of autism, which are debilitating and require 24/7 care, for which such a treatment would be a godsend.
