Repligen Announces Developmental Regulation of Secretin in the Rat Brain. Newborn Animals Express Secretin in Brain Regions Implicated in Autism.
Yahoo!Finance
November 12, 2003

This press release from the publicly traded company Repligen, a biopharmaceutical company, announced the results of a study of secretin that were presented recently at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans.

As reported, this study looked specifically at the effects of secretin in rat brains and found evidence that the hormone acted on the amygdala (a structure that in humans is associated with emotion and certain types of learning), the cerebellum (a structure that in the human brain has a central role in controlling movement, which is being studied for its role in autism), and the hippocampus (a structure believed to play a role in human memory and learning). The researchers theorized that the amount of secretin in the brain tissue affects the maturation of the amygdala, cerebellum, and hippocampus.

Their current research suggests that the number and activity of secretin receptors found in the rat brains is related to their brains' developmental stage. Thus, the researchers hypothesized that the relationship they have found between the age of administration and response to secretin in human children, like in the rats, is a function of the number of secretin receptors that are active during their brains' different developmental stages. The company suggests that the study's findings could explain why the effect of secretin on social behaviour that is found in some children with autism is related to the age at which the hormone is given. The company is presently conducting clinical trials in people with autism and people with schizophrenia to see if secretin alters the deficits in social behaviour seen in both groups.

The President and Chief Executive Officer of Repligen Corporation said that the study's results "may provide a biological basis for the strong effect of age on the improvement in social interaction which we observed in our Phase 2 study of secretin in pediatric autism" and suggests that the findings may explain why younger children are more responsive to treatment with secretin.

Go to findings from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of secretin.

Rating: (out of 4) Is the reporting balanced; that is, does it give both sides of the issue? The press release reports only on a small study conducted with rodents. It does not provide alternate explanations for the symptoms seen in autism. (0) Does the report sensationalize the material? Not really, but because it is a press release it may seem to have greater importance than it would have had if it had been published in a journal. (1) Does the information come from a scientific journal? This is bench research that has not been tested out in human trials. There is published evidence that secretin does not work in children with autism. (0) Does it fit with existing evidence about autism? Although there is evidence of some dysfunction of the amygdala in human children with autism, this work was done on rodents and does not have demonstrated applicability to humans. (0) Rating: 1/4