Researchers may have stumbled on something big, or at least very useful. New trials on laboratory mice who had an autism like induced condition, showed symptom reversal after being administered benzodiazepines, a class of medication used to control anxiety.
So far, the medical community has struggled to find an answer or even a chemical solution that is effective to treat the problem of autism. If the new research holds, it might finally give autistic children and adults a chance to lead normal, emotionally fulfilling lives.
The study on laboratory mice showed that at certain small doses of benzodiazepines, the existing symptoms of autism regressed.
The interesting part of this new research and its results, is that it marks a total departure from conventional therapy. In fact, many autistic children were, up to now, given medication that is used off label and intended medically for those people who have deficit or hyperactivity disorders, a medication that has the completely opposite effect on the brain than benzodiazepines do.
When the mice were injected with low doses of the anti-anxiety drugs during the research, their behavior quickly modified into what is considered to be more positive, constructive action, such as social interactions, less repetition, and spatial learning. Even more interestingly, in those mice, the usual 'doping' effects of benzodiazepines, i.e., sleepiness, or lethargy were not observed at the low doses, leading scientists to believe that the autistic syndrome may hide a particular aspect of how the brain of an autistic person is wired, in that it reacts so peculiarly to the administration of benzodiazepines.
The good part of this finding, is that the class of drugs that were used in the experiment are some of the oldest on the market and also some of the safest.
Since no human trial has yet been conducted, it is hard to say exactly what effect such therapy will have on human beings. Clinical trials in humans do not always replicate the success of trials on mice or other specimens. The other problem that could arise with the use of this class of medicines is the different response that might arise from people with different aspects of autism.
Autism manifests differently in different people, since it is a syndrome that runs along a spectrum that sees some people having very light symptoms and some others having very severe ones. How the drugs will affect each different aspect of the syndrome remains to be seen.
Benzodiazepines target the gammaaminobutyric acid neurotransmitter, which acts as an inhibitor of specific brain-wave activity. In administering the benzodiazepines they allow the GABA receptors to stay open longer, so that more negative ions can flood into the cell and inhibit communications. A 'slowing down' as it were of the activity that in some people causes anxiety.
The study of autism has long ago been suspected to be generated by an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmissions in the brain. In autism, excitatory neurons are or can be overactive, which then produces the symptoms and the behavior that are the hallmark of the individual suffering from autism.
What is also interesting is that only small doses seem to be effective, and larger doses actually failed to reduce the symptoms and only resulted in the mice being groggy or inactive. However, many drugs can be less effective when administered at higher doses.
Benzodiazepines are already employed for the treatment of epilepsy and, of course, anxiety. But they do act quite differently on individuals that are adults versus ones that are minors or children. So in that sense, a whole line of clinical trials will have to be planned to find out what doses will work on what people and conditions.
Researchers in the medical field who want this drug to be certified for use in autistic children or adults want a clinical trial that has large numbers, because autism is such a variegated, multifaceted syndrome, and a small clinical trial could yield little useful information if too narrow. The discovery of how the new employment of a safe drug on the syndrome works should be immediately seized upon, so that, if validated in human trials, it can bring relief and help to those who suffer from it.
op_Ed
source : SI/ 3.22.14
No comments:
Post a Comment