Genetic clues to compulsive, self-injurious behavior in rare childhood disorder
Research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine provides new clues for the compulsive behavior and cognitive defects associated with a rare childhood neurological disease called Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND). Two pathways found to be defective in LND are known to be associated with other neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer’s and Parknson’s diseases, suggesting common causes of cognitive and behavioral defects in these neurological disorders.
The research is published on-line today in the PLoS ONE.
“This study is important because it opens completely new and unexpected areas of research into the genetic cause of compulsive and self-injurious behavior in Lesch-Nyhan disease,” said principal investigator Theodore Friedmann, MD, professor of pediatrics at UCSD’s Center for Neural Circuit and Behavior and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, a research and teaching affiliate of the UCSD School of Medicine.
