Vasopressin: A promising Biomarker and Therapeutic for Autism - Karen Parker PhD @Synchrony2021

Autism is currently diagnosed behaviorally because its pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Consequently, there are no laboratory-based diagnostic tests to detect ASD and no disease-modifying medications to treat its core behavioral features. The capability of rapidly detecting ASD based on neurochemical markers, however, would revolutionize ASD detection, enable more timely behavioral intervention, and provide targets for pharmacological treatment.
To address these urgent unmet clinical needs, we developed a translational ASD research program, spanning studies of naturally low-social monkeys to children with ASD. Converging evidence from this body of research indicates that the neuropeptide vasopressin plays a critical and conserved role in regulating social abilities, and that brain vasopressin signaling is impaired in low-social monkeys, children with ASD, and newborn infants before the period when ASD first manifests.
On the basis of this compelling evidence, we recently conducted a first-in-class double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot trial. We found that intranasal vasopressin treatment is well tolerated and significantly improves social abilities in children with ASD. These findings suggest that a neurochemical marker of impaired social functioning may be present very early in life, before behavioral symptoms emerge, and that the vasopressin signaling pathway may hold diagnostic and therapeutic promise for ASD.
Karen Parker, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where she leads the Major Laboratories Steering Committee and directs the Parker Lab Social Neurosciences Research Program. The principal goal of her research is to better understand the biology of social functioning across a range of species, and to translate these fundamental insights to drive development of novel diagnostic tools to detect, and precision therapeutics to treat, social impairments in patient populations. Findings from her research have led to two patent applications, and have been repeatedly recognized by SPECTRUM in its annual “Top 10” list of studies that changed the field of autism.
Dr. Parker received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University. Dr. Parker joined the Stanford faculty in 2007. She is an Affiliate Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center, an elected Member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and a Kavli Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Parker’s research program has been supported by the NIH, Simons Foundation, and Department of Defense, and published in leading scientific journals. Dr. Parker serves on the Editorial Board of Psychoneuroendocrinology, and on various national and international scientific advisory boards and grant review committees.
#vasopressin #biomarkers #therapeutics #treatments #therapies
🎥 This talk was part of Synchrony 2021 Online Symposium - 'From Bench to Biopharma', organised by the The BRAIN Foundation in partnership with UC Davis MIND Institute and CalTech.
🎥 For more Synchrony 2021 talks and highlights:
• Synchrony Symposium 20...
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Synchrony synchronysymposium.com/ is the first and only international symposium on translational research in #autism, that brings together academia, #biotech, pharmaceutical companies and #venture partners from around the world with the mission to improve health and quality of life of people with #autismspectrumdisorder.
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The BRAIN Foundation brainfoundation.org/ is a 501c(3) non-profit. The founders of BRAIN envision a world where every child and adult on the autism spectrum is healthy, participates fully in education and employment, and has a better quality of life. It aims to catalyze research that results in evidence-based interventions for the disabilities associated with autism, and also results in better medical standard of care.
To accomplish this, it funds impactful research through #philanthropy and our network of partners in the venture, corporate, and grassroots community.