PLT Test Blog

Epigenopathies were introduced in an earlier post Today’s post takes another dip into the genetics of autism and currently existing therapies that could be re-purposed for autism.  We also see that many secrets remain beyond the 3% of your DNA that usually gets all the research attention.  The remaining 97% is not junk after all. There was an earlier post on this blog that introduced Epigenetics.  It is not such a complicated subject, just think about it as little tags on your DNA that turn genes on/off usually when they should not be, but there remains the possibility to use epigenetics for good.  In people with under-expression of an important gene you could “tag it” and then increase its expression. The exome is the part of your DNA that encodes the various proteins needed to build your body.  The remaining 97% of your DNA was once thought to be just junk; we saw in recent post that one part contains enhancers and silencers that control expression of the gen...

Two autism therapies mentioned in this blog have recently failed in their clinical trials. The selective mGluR5 antagonist mavoglurant failed in two trials funded by Roche and Coronado Biosciences threw in the towel with its Trichuris suis ova (“TSO”) program.  TSO are parasites that are introduced to the gut to modify the immune response, they are thought to help conditions like ulcerative colitis and some autism. "Coronado Biosciences (NASDAQ:   CNDO ) has decided to no longer pursue the development of its Trichuris suis ova (“TSO”) program. The Company is terminating all on-going TSO trials, including the Company’s Phase 2A clinical trial of TSO in pediatric patients with autism spectrum disorder. A preliminary analysis of data from this trial failed to demonstrate any signal of activity." The original user of TSO in autism documented his case here:- http://autismtso.com/ It has been a long time since the father updated his site. Does he still give TSO to his son? This ad...

When writing this blog I frequently wonder what happened to all the very clever people; why are these full-time paid researchers often missing the obvious? Boy with severe headache and ASD, awaiting Propranolol The answer is, with a few notable exceptions (Catterall, Ben-Ari etc), the clever ones do not study autism, they study things that are much better defined, rare things like Angelman Syndrome and, recently, Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome.  These researchers seem much more rigorous.  For example:- David Sweatt (Pitt Hopkins) Pitt–Hopkins Syndrome: intellectual disability due to loss of TCF4-regulated gene transcription Edwin Weeber (Angelman syndrome) http://weeberlab.com/as.html So autism is left to what might be termed the Baron Cohen brigade. Propranolol Propranolol is a medication of the beta blocker type.  It is used to treat high blood pressure, a number of types of irregular heart rate , thyrotoxicosis , performance anxiety , and essential tremors .  It is used ...