{"id":216939,"date":"2025-07-01T06:22:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T11:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/subtle-molecular-changes-in-brain-cells-may-be-linked-to-autism-and-schizophrenia"},"modified":"2025-07-01T06:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T11:22:49","slug":"subtle-molecular-changes-in-brain-cells-may-be-linked-to-autism-and-schizophrenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/subtle-molecular-changes-in-brain-cells-may-be-linked-to-autism-and-schizophrenia","title":{"rendered":"Subtle molecular changes in brain cells may be linked to autism and schizophrenia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/subtle-molecular-changes-in-brain-cells-may-be-linked-to-autism-and-schizophrenia.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi has uncovered a key mechanism that helps shape how our brains are wired, and what can happen when that process is disrupted.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S221112472500498X\" target=\"_blank\">new study<\/a> published in <i>Cell Reports<\/i>, the RNA-MIND Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, led by Professor of Biology Dan Ohtan Wang, with Research Associate Belal Shohayeb, reveals how a small molecular mark on messenger RNA, called m6A methylation, regulates the production of essential proteins inside growing neurons. This process plays a critical role in the development of axons, the long extensions that neurons use to connect and communicate with each other.<\/p>\n<p>The study shows that this molecular mark controls the production of a protein called <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/adenomatous+polyposis+coli\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">adenomatous polyposis coli<\/a> (APC), which helps organize the internal structure of nerve cells and is needed to locally produce \u03b2-actin, a key building block of the cytoskeleton to support axon growth. Importantly, the team also found that <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/genetic+mutations\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">genetic mutations<\/a> linked to autism and schizophrenia can interfere with this process, potentially affecting how the brain develops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi has uncovered a key mechanism that helps shape how our brains are wired, and what can happen when that process is disrupted. In a new study published in Cell Reports, the RNA-MIND Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, led by Professor of Biology Dan Ohtan Wang, with Research [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}