MIT research suggests possibility of gene therapy to treat ADHD

A new study from scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has provided new evidence of a genetic link for both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism — which could lead to the use of cutting-edge gene therapy treatments for behavioral and developmental syndromes in the future, researchers say.

“One of the long-term goals is gene therapy where we can actually introduce genetic material that might be missing from the human,” said Michael F. Wells, a post-doctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University. “What’s exciting is that this is now a possibility, when it was pretty much science fiction 10 or 15 years ago.”

Doctors have recently looked to gene therapy as an experimental technique to treat diseases including cancer, ALS and Alzheimer’s disease. But disorders such as ADHD and autism have not been part of that discussion.

Wells and his colleagues found that genetically modified mice missing the “Ptchd1” gene — suspected to be absent in some people with ADHD, autism and intellectual disabilities — were more hyperactive and easily distracted than the...