PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOUND FOUND TO ELIMINATE AUTISM IN MICE

Autism is caused by a disturbance in cell pathway communication.  It is also becoming much more prevalent.

Scientists have been trying to solve the riddle of autism, and spent much time and money trying to find what are its causes.

Now it seems new hope might be coming from research that indicates mice afflicted with the same neurological problem are cured when given an experimental compound.  

The compound is not new.  But its use is.  Scientists have discovered that the drug can restore the cell communication that is interrupted in people suffering from the ailment.  

In fact the illness develops because some cells in the developmental stages go in 'defensive mode' and thereby sever the ability to talk to each other, hampering the normal development of the brain in return.  

The drug would in effect, block the 'danger' signal to those cells that are critical in this process, and allow them to go back to a normal metabolic state and restore communication with one another.  

Next year, the scientists are going to try the same compound on a small group of children afflicted with the illness to see if the success translated to the human body.

The therapy is called antipurinergic or APT.  

One of the scientists in the research for APT, Dr. Naviaux explained that a large majority of the genetic or environmental causes of autism act on the cell by producing a 'danger' response, which is sustained and continuous if nothing intervenes to quell it.  This 'danger' response is part of the immune response metabolism which ultimately causes inflammation in the target cells.  But it also shuts down communication with neighboring cells as the infected, or affected in this case, cells try to fix themselves, or simply avoid further injury. 

The scientists, led by Naviaux, tested Suramin, a purinergic inhibitor, used for tse tse fly infections of the sleeping disease they carry in the African subcontinent.  It is one of the oldest medical treatments available and was first tested in mice back in 1916.  

What is most interesting is that the ATP compound seems to act on the autism symptoms even when it is in its advanced stages, which would lead one to believe that autism is not irreversible as once thought.  

The ATP compound was found to restore 17 types of abnormalities in the cell to cell signaling processes, and improved social behaivor, motor coordination and normalized mitochondrial metabolism.

What impressed the researchers most was the drug's ability to reverse the cell danger response and inflammation.  This finding could be a new line of research in a number of other pathologies that exhibit inflammatory processes.  

Funding for the project was obtained through the organizations Autism Speaks, and many others.

Source; Science Daily  3.14.13