PLT Test Blog

  Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) Tours, France, Gateway to the Loire Valley and Home to iBrain Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/user:Tango7174   We do seem to be going round in circles in this blog.   One doctor reader contacted me recently to tell me about Pentoxifylline for cognitive improvement. I told him that I am not surprised and that in the world of autism Pentoxifylline has been known to be beneficial for half a century.   The abstract below is from a Japanese paper in 1978   On our experience in using pentoxifylline for abnormal behavior and the autistic syndrome Abstract Describes the successful use of pentoxifylline (150–600 mg/day) with 3–15 yr old children with abnormal behavior (e.g., self-mutilation, aggressiveness, and hyperkinesis) and with autism. It is noted that while the drug was effective in reducing symptoms of autism, developmental factors in the disorder should not be ignored.   You might wonder why it has not been...

This blog has shown that great things are possible just by fine-tuning a full-sized autistic brain, during childhood. In the case of our reader Roger, we are reminded that in adulthood the correct intervention can have profound results. It is never too late. Nonetheless, it is clear that the sooner you intervene with biology, the better the end result should be. There is a concept of Critical Periods (also called sensitive periods) where it seems the maturation of a young brain is particularly vulnerable to both environmental and genetic insults. During these periods if you intervene pharmacologically you might make permanent life-changing modifications to the brain.   The recurring theme in Critical Periods in autism is a disturbed excitatory-inhibitory (E/I) balance. This is the same E/I imbalance discussed in depth in this blog.  Some conditions that may lead to autism are detected before birth, such as Down Syndrome (DS) and many others could be. Surprisingly, there is now...

This blog aims to synthesize the relevant parts of the research and make connections that point towards some potential therapeutic avenues.   Most researchers work in splendid isolation and concentrate on one extremely narrow area of interest. The GABA A reset, not functional in some autism On the one hand things are very simple, if the GABA A receptors function correctly and are inhibitory and the glutamate receptors (particularly NMDA and mGluRx) function correctly, there is harmony and a   perfect excitatory/inhibitory balance. Unfortunately numerous different things can go wrong and you could write a book about each one. As you dig deeper you see that the sub-unit make-up of GABA A receptors is not only critical but changes.   The plus side is that you can influence this. Today we see that the receptors themselves are physically movable and sometimes get stuck in the “wrong place”. When the receptors cluster close together they produce a strong inhibitory effect, but...