Carmem Juracy Silveira Gottfried

Digitonin-permeabilization of astrocytes in culture monitored by trypan blue exclusion and loss of S100B by ELISA.

The present protocol details a procedure to permeabilize astrocytes in cultures with digitonin as well as to discuss some data about factors that interfere in permeabilization, particularly divalent cations and nucleotides. Two methods to assess astrocyte permeabilization are described: trypan blue exclusion and ELISA for S100B, a specific protein expressed by these cells. Digitonin-permeabilization of astrocytes has been used to investigate intracellular pools of Ca(2+), internal stores of metabolites, phosphoinositide hydrolysis, and recently we standardized a procedure to study protein phosphorylation (Brain Res. 853 (2000) 32-40). A short incubation time (10 min) with 30 microM digitonin permeabilized at least 75% of cells. A range of media with different ionic nature can be used in cell permeabilization without affecting significantly the extent of permeabilization, but calcium and ATP of the order of 10(-5) M induced a partial resealing which deserves to be considered in assays of permeabilized preparations of astrocytes.

Valproic Acid in Autism Spectrum Disorder: From an Environmental Risk Factor to a Reliable Animal Model

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have attracted public attention by its high prevalence, elevated social cost and large impact on the family [1]. Since the first descriptions of au‐ tism made by Hans Asperger in 1938 [2] and by Leo Kanner in 1943 [3, 4], much discus‐ sion has focused in the search for the triggering points of autism and identifying risk factors has become a high priority of scientists. Nevertheless, even after almost seventy years since the first reports, the etiology of autism remains unknown and its molecular basis is not well understood. Environmental factors (such as virus, bacteria, drugs, etc.) known to increase the risk of autism have critical periods of action during embryogene‐ sis. Congenital syndromes are found in high rates in patients with autism including so‐ matic changes originated early in the first trimester [5].

Antipsychotics in the Treatment of Autism

The neurobehavioral syndromes are more frequent than we usually think. They are clinical challenges, because they demand knowledge from the physician as well as time for the correct approach. Such complaints are very frequent in hospital and addition to the private practice. For example, according to a survey carried out in our Hospital, the Child Neurology Unit made 10,622 evaluations in 2010, most of which were neurobehavioral syndromes including autism and other Pervasive Development Disorders. Because of the subtlety of the boundaries between Neurology and Psychiatry, the term neurobehavioral could also be called neuropsychiatric. These boundaries have been explored both in the clinical (Nunes and Mercadante, 2004) and in the experimental area (Quincozes-Santos et al., 2010). It is important to build a bridge between the clinical and the experimental research, especially when the issue is neuropsychiatric disorders. This linkage indubitably enhances the common knowledge of neurobehavioral alterations as well as it promotes the reciprocal enthusiasm. One of the most intriguing neurobehavioral syndromes is autism. The challenge starts with the difficulty of defining the disorder, continues with the limitations imposed by the lack of a clinical marker, and ends with the difficulties in the experimental research field. The word autism was used for the first time by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1911. “Autism” came from the Greek word autos, meaning self. However, the landmark paper describing autism came from the Austrian psychiatrist Leo Kanner, who described eleven children that shared common behavior, with a peculiar inability to establish affective and interpersonal contact. He published the paper “Autistic disturbances of affective contact” in the Journal Nervous Child (Kanner, 1943). In 1944, the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger described cases of children with some behavioral characteristics that resembled those of children with autism, but with a peculiar type of language as well as normal cognitive performance (Gadia et al., 2004). He published an article in German in 1944 entitled “Die ‘Autistischen Psychopathen’ im Kindesalter” in Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten that was translated into English only in 1989. To date, more than half a century since Kanner s study, the number of papers in PubMed containing the word autism has risen above 17,000. From this total, the percentage of

Clinical Approach in Autism: Management and Treatment

The terms Autism and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) can be interchangeable in the clinical setting, and have been used to describe one of the most intriguing neurobehavioral syndromes, that include the so-called “triad of Wing”: problems in communication, social skills, and restrict repertoire of interests. However, it is somewhat difficult to precisely define autism, because of the imprecise boundaries between different kinds of ASD as well as the fact that there is no biological marker to date (Gottfried and Riesgo 2011).