Autism and disorders of aging

Thank you.

You bring up a great point, which is we talk about autism throughout the lifespan, and the lifespan is a long time.

And Parkinson's and Alzheimer's are actually more associated with what I call aging.

We're all aging at any particular time, but rather than, you know, I didn't specifically didn't label this autism in adulthood, but autism and aging.

And Parkinson's and Alzheimer's are two conditions

or two disorders that are particularly prevalent in those who are becoming specifically older or are elderly.

I don't know how much of the audience knows about Parkinson's disease other than what they've heard on the news or in the media or in movies.

So do you mind telling me a little bit more about Parkinson's disease? Like, what is it? What are the symptoms? And Manuela, since you are so familiar with the biological markers, could you kind of maybe take us through that?

Yeah, absolutely.

So Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that primarily affects movement.

People often think of symptoms like tremor, stiffness, slower movements, and balance difficulties, but Parkinson's disease can also affect cognition.

sleep, mood, and autonomic functions.

Biologically, Parkinson's disease is characterized by the loss of dopamine-producing neurons in a region of the brain called the substantia nigra.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate movement, so when these neurons are lost, motor symptoms begin to emerge.

Another hallmark of Parkinson's disease is the accumulation of a protein called alpha-synuclein.

And so alpha-synuclein is a protein normally found in neurons.

We don't fully understand all of its functions, but in Parkinson's disease, it can become misfolded and accumulate into toxic aggregates called Lewy bodies.

And these protein accumulations are considered one of the major biological hallmarks of the disease.

And so, yeah, it's thought to then contribute to neuronal dysfunction and cell death.

So my first question would be, okay, biologically, is there evidence for Lewy bodies or even nigrostriatal pathology in autism? So is that one area of convergence?

So Parkinsonism refers to a group of motor symptoms, like I mentioned, such as bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor, stiffness, and balance and stability.

But that can result from various neurological conditions, medications, or Parkinson's disease itself.

On the other hand, Parkinson's disease is a specific neurodegenerative disorder that does affect the dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra.

We're not really sure if autistic individuals at the moment are showing Parkinson's disease.

You know, there is a health care paper by Crowan and colleagues, you know, that found that autistic adults are approximately 6 to 33 times more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease or related conditions than non-autistic adults.