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Century-Old Drug Reverses Signs of Autism In Mice
sciencehabit writes: A single dose of a century-old drug has eliminated autism symptoms in adult mice with an experimental form of the disorder. Originally developed to treat African sleeping sickness, the compound, called suramin, quells a heightened stress response in neurons that researchers believe may underlie some traits of autism. The finding raises the hope that some hallmarks of the disorder may not be permanent, but could be correctable even in adulthood.
Any idea what will be at this domain when its entire userbase is cured?
Gaining a drug's approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the US — and similar government agencies in other countries — is a very expensive process. The expense is normally offset for by the patent(s) granted to the pharmaceutical company, that developed the drug, which make it an exclusive maker/seller of the medicine for decades.
However, if the drug is long-known — and only needs an approval for new application — who will undertake to pay for the approval, if there is no way to patent it and the approval will allow all drug-makers (both domestic and foreign) to put their own versions on the market?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
How about people?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
As someone with Aspergers Syndrome this would be a godsend for me. There are many times where my adrenaline level is far above what is needed for the situation. It is extremely frustrating when most of my body is in full fight/flight response and there is a small voice in the back of my head saying "chill out dude, it's not that important". The problem is that the adrenal response usually overrides the cognitive response and bad things happen.
I just hope it does not impact the good things about autism such as the heightened ability to find and keep track of details.
When I have a teenaged nephew who can't form coherent sentences on a regular basis let alone ever live an independent life? Yeah, I think I get to represent his condition as something being wrong.
That's fine if you have this condition (or whatever you'd like to call it) and you're OK with the quality of your life but don't be making that decision for others. I have a bad hip, do you think it would be "wrong" of me to condemn anyone else who has a bad hip who's ready to seek medical treatment to make their life's situation easier for them? Or how about someone with Parkinson's? What about someone who is Bipolar? Where do you get off making the decision for others as to when their life works for them?
How about you stop trying to hunt for ways to make people who want to alter their life's condition via the use of medications seem like they're wrong for not embracing what makes them "unique and special"?
in the form of a vaccine?
It's one thing to be "unique".
It's a completely different one to be SO "unique" that others shun you for being "weird", with you not even knowing WHY you are. And that you only get "weirder" if you try to mimic them to blend in somehow.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I have Asperger's Syndrome and "normal" is not my goal. In fact, if I was neurotypical I would not be as skilled a programmer. I would like to control the situations where the Asperger's gets in the way of doing something I want to do. Too many time by body has been in full fight/flight and a small voice in my mind has said "Chill out dude. It not that important". The fight response has lost me a few jobs. Controlling the extremes is far from being "normal".
From TFA: "Second, suramin is a poor drug choice for chronic use because of potentially toxic side effects that can occur with prolonged treatment."
And from the Wikipedia page on the drug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suramin#Adverse_reactions):
The most frequent adverse reactions are nausea and vomiting. About 90% of patients will get an urticarial rash that disappears in a few days without needing to stop treatment. There is a greater than 50% chance of adrenal cortical damage, but only a smaller proportion will require lifelong corticosteroid replacement. It is common for patients to get a tingling or crawling sensation of the skin with suramin. Suramin will cause clouding of the urine which is harmless: patients should be warned of this to avoid them becoming alarmed.
Kidney damage and exfoliative dermatitis occur less commonly.
Suramin has been applied clinically to HIV/AIDS patients resulting in a significant number of fatal occurrences and as a result the application of this molecule was abandoned for this condition.
So while this is an important piece of work that identifies purine metabolism as a critical set of pathways related to ASD, it should be viewed primarily as a starting point for a more precisely targeted drug that will have the same effect on the pathways that matter without also messing up the ones that cause the side-effects.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
Not the original poster, but here you go...
What aspects of autism predispose to talent?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
Talent in autism: hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
Enhanced perception in savant syndrome: patterns, structure and creativity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
The savant syndrome: intellectual impairment and exceptional skill.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
Comparing the intelligence profiles of savant and nonsavant individuals with autistic disorder
http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...