Chemo effect on brain cells pinpointed; potential link to autism

Scientists discovered how the chemo drug topotecan affects individual neurons to potentially cause "chemo fog." A similar long-term affect in the developing brain could trigger autism. "There's still a question in the cancer field about the degree to which some chemotherapies get into the brain," said a co-senior author of the paper. "But in our experiments, we show that if they do get in, they can have a dramatic effect on synaptic function. We think drug developers should be aware of this when testing their next generation of topoisomerase inhibitors."

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