PLT Test Blog

There has been little mention in this blog about fetal medicine, but it is an area that does hold great promise.   At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, they have been surgically treating babies with spina bifida prior to their birth for nearly twenty years. Early surgical intervention to the spine even allows for malformation of the brain to be self-repaired and this is visible on MRI scans. Such prenatal treatment can be 100% successful, resulting in there being no physical disability in adulthood.  The more you read about neuroscience the more you realize how little we really know and so encouraging the brain to self-repair may indeed be the best strategy.  This is an avenue of research and not just with stem cells.  A similar approach is proving successful in treating skin cancer, you do not attack the cancer with drugs, you modify the immune system with a drug so it "wakes up" and does its job and kills the cancer cells.          S...

This post has something for both the casual reader and the scientists among you.   Today I will start with the science. Epigenetics Epigenetics are chemical markers that can appear on your DNA as the result of some environmental exposure, like diet or stress.   Methylation is a type of epi gene tic change in which methyl groups are added to DNA and switch on or off the underlying gene.   This can have severe consequences depending on which gene is affected. Identical Twins It seems that if one identical twin has autism, there is a 70% chance that the other twin will be autistic.   In 30% of the cases the twin is neurotypical.   Researchers have very cleverly started to analyse pairs of twins from this 30% group and look for epigenetic marks.   This would highlight genetic causes of autism. Apoptosis Apoptosis is a tricky word to spell, for somebody like me, but is actually something quite simple;  i t is programmed cell death.   Apoptosis happens...

I think today's post is going to be one of my better efforts.  We are continuing with the theme of Cortisol, depression and stress; but we are going to add two further chemicals, both "social neuropeptides". The reason than today's post is worth reading is that it will bridge neurobiology and neuropsychology.   For me at least, psychology is light reading whereas biology needs more thought and understanding.  A social neuropeptide is a nice term not invented by me; it seems to come from Dr Stein from the University of Cape Town . Rather than understand everything about human hormones, we are just trying to understand stress and coping mechanisms, so that we can reduce or  just better manage autistic behaviours.  Cortisol Cortisol is a hormone that is very easy to measure; saliva samples will do just fine.  Cortisol levels, or changes in cortisol levels, tell us about how the body is coping with emotion stress.  We are not talking about oxidat...

Today starts a mini-series inspired by a reader’s comment about depression.   Angie, from Australia, pointed out that while the kids with ASD might not be depressed, many of the parents certainly are.   Not only will we address Angie’s point, but we will extend it a little and show how this can also help in our quest for the grail. Many people have stressful lives, but some have discovered a special way to overcome this.   I was reading an English newspaper recently and there was an article about a celebrity cook, Nigella Lawson, who is very popular on the BBC.   While Jamie Oliver appears not to overindulge on his own cooking, it appears that Nigella does. Nigella was giving her tips to losing those excess pounds or kilograms.   The interesting part was not the treadmill in the spare room, but her comment about singing extremely loudly while using it.   Here comes the science part.   Cortisol is an important hormone; and as we learnt previously when s...