Respiratory problems, such as irregular breathing and apnea during resting and/or sleeping, are a common feature in patients with Rett syndrome (RTT). Three studies here outlined describe three different approaches to these problems and present encouraging results. The first article describes the results obtained using a serotonin receptor agonist, whose commercial name is Sarizotan, in […]
Neuropaediatric diseases and synapsis

Rett syndrome: an over-50-years journey
In 1966, an Austrian neurologist named Andreas Rett first described more than 20 young female patients which shared similar characteristics, starting from the observation of identical stereotypic hand movements. In 1983, the Swedish pediatrician Bengt Hagberg gave for the first time the name of Rett syndrome (RTT) to the symptoms he detected in a group […]
D-Serine dietary supplement as a therapeutic strategy against Rett-like severe encephalopathy: a case study
Here we present the abstract from a recently published article on a Rett-like encephalopathy case study, with the participation of the scientific team of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.

New roles of microglia in brain pathophysiology
Microglia cells represent, depending on the species, from 5% to 20% of the glial cells in the adult brain. It is commonly accepted that microglia precursors originate in the yolk sac – as the tissue specific macrophages – although their identity has not been confirmed so far. Once the development of the blood-brain barrier is […]
Anti-inflammatory drugs can reverse synaptic defects
Inflammation modifies risk and/or severity of a variety of brain diseases through still elusive molecular mechanisms. Tomasoni et al. (open access article available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5370184/) show that hyperactivation of the interleukin 1 pathway, through either removal of the interleukin 1 receptor 8 (IL-1R8,) or activation of IL-1R, leads to up-regulation of the mTOR pathway and […]