PLT Test Blog

This post stems from our Greek reader Petra's original observations about the combined effects of coffee and bumetanide. In earlier posts we learned that one likely nexus in autism is the IP3 receptor that releases calcium from a store within each cell. It turns out that too little/too much activity from IP3 receptors is a feature of a wide range of disease, some of which you may not have heard of, including:- ·       Gillespie syndrome, a genetic condition leading to MR/ID, ataxia and notably part of the iris to be missing ·       S pinocerebellar ataxias, genetic conditions that cause loss of movement control ·       Glioblastoma, an aggressive and “untreatable” brain cancer ·       Alzheimer’s disease ·       Huntington’s disease ·       Pancreatitis, inflammation of the pancreas where your body makes its digestive enzymes and insulin ...

Today’s post is about OAT3, highlighted by the green lines. The interventions reduce renal excretion and raise plasma concentration rather than directly improving transport across the BBB Today’s post is a collaboration. Our reader Ling pointed out research trying to boost the bioavailability of bumetanide using something clever called an OAT3 inhibitor.   This would reduce the rate at which the body excretes bumetanide and thus potentially improve its therapeutic effect. Petra, our reader from Greece, pointed out that in her son Bumetanide seemed to work better when taken with Greek coffee and that that Greek Grandpas like to take their diuretics with a steaming Greek coffee. Most people, me included, automatically think caffeine when someone mentions coffee. So I assumed that caffeine might be an OAT3 inhibitor and I did make some experiments on that basis. There is no research data to support caffeine as an OAT3 inhibitor. Recently I was again looking for other potential Bumetan...

Many readers of this blog, and some of those who leave comments, are using the Bumetanide therapy proposed by Ben-Ari and Lemonnier. At some point it should become an approved autism drug and Ben Ari has already patented it for use in Down Syndrome , so I guess that will come later on. I have been developing my own add-on therapies that might help people for whom a high level of intracellular chloride is part of their autism, or indeed Down Sydrome.   If Bumetanide has a profound impact on your autism, this is almost certainly you. Monty, aged 13 with ASD After 4 years of Bumetanide, it continues to be effective and if Monty stops taking it there is a gradual cognitive decline over a few days, presumably as chloride concentration gradually increases. In spite of an odd temporary Tourette’s type verbal tic that developed after an infection before Christmas, I have been getting plenty of feedback that Monty has got cleverer in 2017.   So it looks like some bumetanide add-o...

I did think of highlighting this post to the Bumetanide researchers in France, but I do not think they would take it seriously. Another one to mention would be this new study, funded by Rodakis, to look at why some antibiotics improve some autism.   Dr Luna at Baylor College is running the study.   Its basic assumption is that the effect must be to do with bacteria, but as our reader Agnieszka has highlighted, common penicillin type antibiotics increase expression of the gene GLT-1 which then reduces glutamate in the brain.   It has nothing to do with bacteria.   Maybe for other antibiotics the effect does relate to bacteria. But if you tell Dr Luna about GLT-1, quite likely she will not be interested.    Study to investigate connection between antibiotic use and autism symptoms Researchers will compare the gut microbiome (bacteria, yeasts and fungi found in the gut) and metabolome (small biological molecules produced by the microbes) of those who experienc...