Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism?
Autism is a brain disorder involving social, memory, and learning deficits, that normally develops prenatally or early in childhood. Frustratingly, many research dollars have as yet failed to identify the cause of autism. While twin concordance studies indicate a strong genetic component, the alarmi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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MDPI AG
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79822 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8191-1049 |
| _version_ | 1826202322483544064 |
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| author | Hartzell, Samantha R. Seneff, Stephanie |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Hartzell, Samantha R. Seneff, Stephanie |
| author_sort | Hartzell, Samantha R. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Autism is a brain disorder involving social, memory, and learning deficits, that normally develops prenatally or early in childhood. Frustratingly, many research dollars have as yet failed to identify the cause of autism. While twin concordance studies indicate a strong genetic component, the alarming rise in the incidence of autism in the last three decades suggests that environmental factors play a key role as well. This dichotomy can be easily explained if we invoke a heritable epigenetic effect as the primary factor. Researchers are just beginning to realize the huge significance of epigenetic effects taking place during gestation in influencing the phenotypical expression. Here, we propose the novel hypothesis that sulfates deficiency in both the mother and the child, brought on mainly by excess exposure to environmental toxins and inadequate sunlight exposure to the skin, leads to widespread hypomethylation in the fetal brain with devastating consequences. We show that many seemingly disparate observations regarding serum markers, neuronal pathologies, and nutritional deficiencies associated with autism can be integrated to support our hypothesis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:05:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/79822 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:05:41Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/798222022-09-28T00:03:19Z Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? Hartzell, Samantha R. Seneff, Stephanie Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering Hartzell, Samantha R. Seneff, Stephanie Autism is a brain disorder involving social, memory, and learning deficits, that normally develops prenatally or early in childhood. Frustratingly, many research dollars have as yet failed to identify the cause of autism. While twin concordance studies indicate a strong genetic component, the alarming rise in the incidence of autism in the last three decades suggests that environmental factors play a key role as well. This dichotomy can be easily explained if we invoke a heritable epigenetic effect as the primary factor. Researchers are just beginning to realize the huge significance of epigenetic effects taking place during gestation in influencing the phenotypical expression. Here, we propose the novel hypothesis that sulfates deficiency in both the mother and the child, brought on mainly by excess exposure to environmental toxins and inadequate sunlight exposure to the skin, leads to widespread hypomethylation in the fetal brain with devastating consequences. We show that many seemingly disparate observations regarding serum markers, neuronal pathologies, and nutritional deficiencies associated with autism can be integrated to support our hypothesis. Quanta Computer (Firm) Simons Foundation Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Simons Center for the Social Brain 2013-08-09T15:02:44Z 2013-08-09T15:02:44Z 2012-10 2012-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1099-4300 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79822 Hartzell, Samantha, and Stephanie Seneff. “Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism?” Entropy 14.12 (2012): 1953–1977. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8191-1049 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e14101953 Entropy Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ application/pdf MDPI AG MDPI Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Hartzell, Samantha R. Seneff, Stephanie Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? |
| title | Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? |
| title_full | Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? |
| title_fullStr | Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? |
| title_short | Impaired Sulfate Metabolism and Epigenetics: Is There a Link in Autism? |
| title_sort | impaired sulfate metabolism and epigenetics is there a link in autism |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79822 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8191-1049 |
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