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USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism

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Minocycline Treatment And The Necessity To Develop A Novel Outcome Measure For Children With Angelman Syndrome, Joseph Christopher Grieco Jan 2015

Minocycline Treatment And The Necessity To Develop A Novel Outcome Measure For Children With Angelman Syndrome, Joseph Christopher Grieco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a rare genetic disorder affecting 1/10,000 to 1/20,000 births. This disorder arises through the genetic disruption of the maternal UBE3A allele, which when coupled with epigenetic silencing of the paternal allele UBE3A allele, gives rise to an absence of UBE3A protein in the central nervous system. Clinical manifestations of the syndrome vary in severity and include poor motor function, deficits in language and severe intellectual impairments. Previous research in the Angelman syndrome mouse model revealed abnormalities in dendritic spine density and morphology of hippocampal pyramidal cells. As seen in humans with AS, mice show abnormal behavioral …


Behavioral And Immunological Phenotypes Of Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein Alpha: Implications For Autism, Antoinette R. Bailey Jan 2012

Behavioral And Immunological Phenotypes Of Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein Alpha: Implications For Autism, Antoinette R. Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication as well as restricted and repetitive behaviors and focused interests. In addition to the cardinal behavioral characteristics observed for diagnosis, autistic individuals exhibit a number of comorbid conditions as well as a variety of aberrant immunological features. Recent studies report that plasma from autistic children contained elevated levels of secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha (sAPP-á), the á-secretase cleavage product of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) which is ubiquitously expressed in the brain, spleen, thymus and other organs. Interestingly, the sAPP-á fragment functions as a neurotrophic …