PLT Test Blog

I wrote several posts about why PAK1 inhibitors should be beneficial in some autism and indeed some schizophrenia. We also saw that PAK1-blocking drugs could be potentially useful for the treatment of neurofibromatosis type 2, in addition to RAS-induced cancers and neurofibromatosis type 1. One problem with drugs developed for cancer is that, even if they finally get approved, they tend to be ultra-expensive.  Production volumes are low because even if they “work” they do not prolong life for so long and cancer has numerous sub-types. Cheap drugs are ones used to treat common chronic conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and indeed treatment of male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), like benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). A small number of readers of this blog have confirmed the beneficial effect of PAK inhibitors in their specific sub-types of autism.  The problem is that there are no potent PAK1 inhibitors suitable for long term use that are readily avail...

CAPE ( caffeic acid phenethyl ester ) is a substance known to be an inhibitor of PAK1.   PAK1 has been shown at MIT to be implicated in various disorders including Fragile X and schizophrenia.   PAK1 inhibitors are also effective in research models of various cancers, including leukemia. There are currently no approved PAK1 inhibitor drugs, although several are in development. PAK1 is also implicated in Neurofibromatosis, and clinicians have researched various alternative PAK1 inhibiting substances.  The two most interesting ones that I have already written posts about are:- ·         Ivermectin , an old anti-parasite drug (also shown effective in  leukemia) ·         BIO 30 propolis, rich in CAPE Ivermectin is already used as an autism treatment by “alternative” doctors who think autism is caused by parasites.   We saw in a recent post that a study looking for parasites in people with autis...

Following up on recent posts about PAK1 , whose presence is required for 70% of cancers to grow and MIT have implicated in several types of autism, I have collected all the data I can find to make trials of PAK1 inhibition in autism.     I contacted the leading Japanese researcher who has developed PAK1 therapies for various kinds of tumor, mainly found in neurofibromatosis, but also brain tumors and even epilepsy.  He suggested the dosage of the CAPE -rich propolis from New Zealand and also suggested another drug called Fingolimod/Gilenya .   This drug is an immunomodulating drug, approved for treating multiple sclerosis , but it is also a PAK1 inhibitor.  It appears to cross the blood brain barrier.  The downside it that Gilenya is hugely expensive, costing around $50,000 a year.     While Tonegawa's group at MIT continue to develop their new PAK1 inhibitors, I am concerned that they will end up with a drug costing as much as Gilenya, whic...

In recent posts I introduced a substance called PAK1.   This substance is implicated in the mechanism behind many cancers and research at MIT showed that is also involved in autism, fragile X and schizophrenia. PAK inhibitors notjust for Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Neurofibromatosis, but also for Autism, Schizophrenia, Fragile X and Shank 3   In that post, I pointed out that a great deal of research is being done to create new drugs that act as PAK inhibitors, none of which are yet approved. But I also highlighted that Neurofibramatosis sufferers have been using a naturally occurring PAK inhibitor, called CAPE, that can be found in certain types of bee propolis. The researchers ended up choosing a New Zealand variety called BIO 30, but they also pointed out that certain Brazilian, and even one Chinese propolis, are known PAK inhibitors.   The problem with all natural “supplements” is the lack of consistency; it turns out that the PAK inhibiting power of BIO 30 varies from ye...