PLT Test Blog

  I was talking to the organizers of an autism conference in the US and one question that came up was, do I know a clinician who prescribes potassium bromide (KBr). It is a question that illustrates the problem in treating autism. In Germany, Austria and some neighbouring countries KBr is an established treatment for pediatric epilepsy and particularly some specific conditions like Dravet sydrome. Dravet syndrome  is a rare, catastrophic, lifelong form of epilepsy which begins in the first year of life.   It is one of those conditions where parents in the UK are begging to use cannabis. Dravet syndrome may be accompanied by an autism diagnosis.  In the US KBr is currently only used for canine epilepsy. Regular readers of this blog may recall that Dravet syndrome responds to potassium bromide (KBr) and should respond to low dose clonazepam (it works in the mouse model). I proposed KBr as an autism therapy and even found an “autism” case history from 150 years ago. ...

  Will Betahistine provide a benefit? Today’s post is the logical follow on from the post showing that the new drug compound E-100 gives a benefit in two models of autism. Another Potential Autism Therapy - novel compound E100 from Krakow, a combined histamine H3 receptor blocker (H3R antagonist) and an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor (AChEI) We saw that E-100 has two modes of action, thought to be complementary:- ·         Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) ·         Histamine H3 antagonists (H3R antagonist) I think our reader Rene is thinking along the lines I suggested that you might achieve the same effects with existing generic drugs.   One combination would be Donepezil plus Betahistine. Donepezil has long been studied in autism, a recent example is here: Improvement of Language in Children with Autism with Combined Donepezil and Choline Treatment The safety and efficacy of a novel combinati...

  Source:  Sukiennice and Main Square as seen from St. Mary's Basilica Krakow’s old town is well worth a visit and is notable in Poland for not having been destroyed by the Germans, Russians or the US/UK during World War 2   Brain histamine and acetylcholine are implicated in cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, anxiety, and narcolepsy, all of which are found to be comorbid with autism.   This led a group in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to test a new compound developed in Krakow, Poland, to see if this new Alzheimer’s compound is effective in two different models of autism.  The Valproic Acid induced model of autism and the BTBR models were chosen.   The BTBR model is seen as a proxy for idiopathic autism; in this model there is no corpus callosum, which joins the left are right sides of the brain (red part in the graphic below). In an earlier post we looked at agenesis of the corpus callosum, which can be full or partial and is a f...