The exact cause of autism is still unknown but researchers have linked the condition to genetic and environmental factors, which include zinc deficiency.
While it is not yet clear if zinc deficiency indeed contributes to autism, researchers of a new study published in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience defined a possible mechanism on how this could work.
Sally Kim, from Stanford University School of Medicine, and colleagues demonstrated that zinc can shape the connections between brain cells that form during early development through a complex molecular machinery controlled by genes linked to autism.
Kim and colleagues found that when a brain signal is transferred via these connections known as synapses, zinc enters the target brain cells where it could bind the two proteins called SHANK2 and SHANK3 that cause changes in the composition and function of adjacent signal receptors known as AMPARs on the neuron’s surface at the synapse.
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