Slashdot Mirror
Drug Reverses Retardation In Mice
snydeq writes "Rapamycin, a medication doctors prescribe to transplant patients to prevent organ rejection, has been used to reverse learning disorders and mild retardation associated with TSC (tuberous sclerosis complex) in mice. Because the condition is linked to autism, scientists believe the drug may be used to treat learning disabilities and short-term memory deficits in all kinds of autism as well. The scientists chose rapamycin after they realized the drug regulates one of the same proteins that the TSC gene does, just in different parts of the body. 'What was surprising is that we could give rapamycin to adult mice and reverse their condition,' said neurobiologist Alcino Silva of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. 'We did not know ... that this drug would be equally effective for the learning disabilities as it is for tissue rejection.' Rapamycin treatment leveled the playing field between normal and TSC mice in as little as three days."
make sure it doesn't wear off after a little while
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Great!!! Now how can we get this drug out to 80% of the population quickly enough?
My blog
"There are, however, the expected side effects from a drug that suppresses the immune system: impaired wound healing, infections, mouth sores and, in rare instances, skin cancer." (and every cowboy sings a sad sad song.)
NARF!!!!!
Jack needs to be volunteered to be the first human test subject. If it can cure him, it'll cure anyone.
"Rapamycin costs about $1,000 per month" For the rest of your life. Wow. I guess that's still a price that someone would be willing to pay if it would benefit them.
Having studied the autistic spectrum to some degree, this provides hope for only a few of the range of autistic symptoms. To learn more, check out Autism Speaks.
Invenio via vel creo
If they cure autism, what am I supposed to do to find postal codes if Billy the office cleanup boy is cured? Look them up online?
Trolling is a art,
Make sure you get plenty of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids while you're growing up (good source = cod liver oil), and you can avoid many mental problems in the first place
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
How do they know which mice are retarded or not? Give them the cheese test?
They see if the mice RTFA and actually understand it.
My daughter's cat is pretty damned dumb, it moves its lips when it reads.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
...let me say that any hope is a good hope. This condition is a far, far greater burden than you probably realize, and to date most of medical science is still groping in the dark.
My son's neurologist actually prescribed an anti-psychotic to a three-year-old boy. One that, by the way, had NEVER been tested on children and was not FDA approved for that purpose.
There are some voodoo-science options as well. Some work all the time for certain cases, while others do not work at all. Gluten-free/Casen-free diet, Omega3's, Anti-Fungals etc, etc, etc. If you take information like this to a practicing MD they are quite likely to either roll their eyes our laugh outright. Still, there are those that swear by them.
This is where we presently sit.
Imagine having a young man, totally dependent on you, who is struggling not only to fit in, but to avoid punishment for perfectly natural behaviors. Now imagine the feeling when the realization sets in that you simply will not ever be able to 'fix' him, no matter how much parenting you may apply. In fact, try though you do, at the end of the day it feels like no one has helped him at all.
Any hope is a good hope.
I've been taking this drug for years. I'll tell ya, having three or four mouth sores at all times helps you lose weight! And when you can't come to work for a month because of a raging... common cold, your idiot boss totally understands!
Sigh... luckily, these days, I'm on a lower dosage (and with a different boss).
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
Your estimate is high. Only 50.7% require it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_US_presidential_election [wikipedia.org]
I'm a Republican, a Bush and now McCain supporter, and have more troll points on slashdot to prove my right wing cred, and I don't find this offensive at all. Come on people, lighten up. This was -funny-. If I would have been first to the joke, I would have made the same crack going the other way. The more seriously we take our political affiliations, the more we are trapped into the political parties that really don't represent us!
After all, can't we say: "Christ, Bush is such a great oil man, that he goes and invades the world's largest untapped source of oil, and now gas is $5 / gallon."
This is my sig.
Can we get this drug to the majority of the US voters before November please?
How many would you have to take before you can correctly pronounce "nuclear"? Because I can think of at least one really important person who needs to learn that already.
stuff |
Look at you. Sitting there, presumably in full control of your faculties, able to socialize, to date, to start and raise a family, to use your time as you wish, to banter back and forth on websites, or read a book, to build a career and take pride in your accomplishments, to further your education and expand your horizons.
Do you even KNOW anybody who suffers from any of these mild-to-mid-grade mental deficiencies? And I don't mean know OF, I mean KNOW and care for?
If you did, you'd see very clearly the tragedy that is a person who much of the time seems completely healthy and normal.
Wouldn't it be GREAT if pharma would give these things away for free? Sure. But this world today is not perfect. And you can't expect just a single industry to "disarm" and go socialized. Even if it WOULD benefit us all.
There's a test you can apply here: When a pharma company spends $1bn researching a drug that ends-up a flop, should we as taxpayers refund that cash to them? If the answer is "no," then you can't begrudge them for taking profits where they can.
And as much as I hate paying $4 for gas, I could say the same about oil: I don't know about you, but 8, 9 years ago when gas was $0.85/gallon, I never decided to pay $1.50 just to help out. Oil companies collapsed and consolodated when Oil was $20/barrel and now, I can't begrudge them for taking profits where they can.
Remember, nearly all of us are shareholders in these companies, whether directly, thru a 401k, thru a pension, thru a union, thru your local government which often invests a portion of its cash-on-hand, etc.
So the drug costs $1k. That's the reality of it. To suggest that being a "slave to the pharma industry" is as bad as being a prisoner of your own reduced faculties shows an abject lack of understanding, not to mention, a serious empathy deficit.
Wake me up when they find a cure for severe retardedness. I'll buy enough for everyone at the office.
Speedy thing goes in; speedy thing comes out.
... for president bush to be of use i think.
"As a parent of an Autistic... who has a young man ... who is struggling not only to fit in, but to avoid punishment for perfectly natural behaviours." ... and "Any hope is a good hope "
And as an adult who is Autistic, I've come to realize that we don't need to fit in. Some people will accept us the way we are and some people will not. I see no reason to have to change my behaviour to conform to the expectations of the ones who don't want to accept me the way I am. I see no reason to be insecure about who I am, simply as I fail to live up to the expectations of the ones who want me to behave a certain way.
Being different isn't wrong, even though you may have heard differently.
But what I find utterly fascinating is what you find when you ask the question, why do some people want others to fit into a certain behaviour?
The key to understanding this question is to first learn to understand the extreme form of why some people want others to conform to a certain behaviour. Then it provides a way to see the more common, but less extreme desires of some people to get others to conform.
The extreme form of this behaviour is the result of a personality disorder categorised as cluster B disorders. (Specifically HPD and NPD forms). Personality disorders are actually very common in society. (For example, its estimated that over 70% of people in prison have a cluster B disorder).
In the case of HPD, they seek attention. (Its often due to lack of parental attention during childhood resulting in an on going fear and insecurity about the need for attention. (we are still pack animals, so when someone lacks the attention of their nearest family during childhood, they end up seeking the protection of the wider pack. Our society being that wider pack. So the safest place in any pack, is to be at the centre of attention in the pack. That's why they instinctively seek attention).
When someone is relentlessly driven to seek more attention, they will often react defensively to anyone else gaining attention. They don't want others to get attention. So as autistics naturally behave differently and so naturally appear different (and so get attention by being different), this triggers a defensive reaction from the insecure attention seekers, who put down and mock anyone who gains attention over them. (Its why the whole concept of the nerd is mocked). The insecure attention seekers also achieve the goal of gaining more attention, by being the one doing the mocking put downs and insults. (Its a double win for them).
The huge irony is that its the insecure attention seekers who have the problem. (In the case of the other forms of cluster B disorders, they often combine the HPD need for attention with other insecurities such as, fear of being seen as a coward, or fear of being seen as stupid, or fear of their unresolved sexual orientation, etc.. ... "fear" being the key word). The other forms of cluster B can be ruthlessly harmful towards others, yet they are the ones who are driven by their inner fears and insecurities. These people are not the kind of people who should be allowed to define what and how others should be seen and accepted within society. The sooner everyone learns to recognised the cluster B disorders (for their own protection from them), then the sooner the world will change, very much for the better. (Unfortunately as the cluster B disorders seek attention, they then naturally seek to define what's accepted in the media, as they seek to be in the media and so in the spotlight of attention, and so its how we have got into this unfortunate situation currently).
As you are a parent of an Autistic, you need to learn to slightly change how you have been taught to perceive Autism. (Taught that is, by some people in society). Autistics have an intense desire to learn. They may focus on very narrow subjects and pursue it with a never ending intensity, that others cannot understand. But that doesn't actually make their intellige