Why autism symptoms can ease during a fever — and how to mimic it - Boing Boing

Parents and caregivers have long reported that when some autistic people run a fever from an infection, their autism-related symptoms ease for a while. MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers, backed by $2.1 million in grants from the Marcus Foundation, want to work out the biology behind this "fever effect" and eventually mimic it as a therapy. A decade of work in mice by neuroscientist Gloria Choi and immunologist Jun Huh points away from the heat itself. They traced the improvement to an immune-signaling molecule called IL-17a, which appears to calm overactive brain circuits during infection. Injecting it directly into the brains of affected mice improved their symptoms even without any fever. "Although it isn't actually triggered by the fever, per se, the 'fever effect' is real, and it provides us with an opportunity to develop therapies to mitigate symptoms of autism spectrum disorders," said Choi. The team now plans a "biobank" of blood and stool samples from volunteers to hunt for the same markers in people. Yeast survived for millenia inside a mummy, and can still be used to make bread. About 5300 years ago, a Tyrolean man died after being shot in the shoulder with… READ THE REST It's surely no surprise that my favorite Sesame Street character is Aloysius Snuffleupagus, a.k.a. Mr. Snuffleupagus, a.k.a. Snuffy. I mean, it's not a secret that I'm a sucker for an… READ THE REST A study in the journal Science argues that homing pigeons may read Earth's magnetic field using iron-rich cells in their livers, rather than their beaks or eyes. Researchers wiped out… READ THE REST Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post.   TL;DR: ChatOn bundles GPT, Claude, Gemini, Sonar, image generation, web search, and more into one app for… READ THE REST Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post.   TL;DR: Learn in your free time with a Headway lifetime subscription, now $69.99 (reg. $299.95). Books are… READ THE REST Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post.   TL;DR: Save videos from Netflix, Disney Plus, YouTube, TikTok, and more to watch anytime you want… READ THE REST