It is estimated that three to six out of every 1,000 children in the United States have autism - and the number of diagnosed cases is rising. Autism is one of a group of series developmental problems called autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that appear in early childhood, usually before age 3. Through symptoms and severity vary, all autism disorders affect a child's ability to communicate and interact with others.

It's not clear whether this is due to better detection and reporting of autism, a real increase in the number of cases, or both.

That's why researchers at Case Western Reserve University, led by Gary Landreth, a professor of neurosciences and neurology at the School of Medicine, have pulled together a number of recent findings that link a common genetic pathway with a number of human syndromes and a newly-recognized genetic form of autism, publishing them in the January 29, 2009, issue of the prestigious journal Neuron.

Landreth, whose research team is made up of partners from the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania, says his lab in particular has been researching the class of enzymes called ERKs (extracellular signal regulated kinase), which are the central elements of a major intracellular signal transduction pathway. His research team has found that in animal models the ERKs - known as ERK 1 and ERK 2 - are required for normal brain, heart and facial development.

This common genetic pathway that acts to regulate the ERK signaling cascade is particularly important in brain development, learning, memory and cognition. It has been recently reported that mutation or deletion of elements within this signaling pathway leads to developmental syndromes in humans that are associated with impaired cognitive function and autism…