PLT Test Blog

Today’s post sounds complicated. We actually already know that the gene GABRA5, and hence the alpha 5 sub-unit of GABA A receptors, can affect cognition, but we do not know for sure in whom it is relevant. Most readers of this blog are lay people, as such we tend to be predisposed to the idea that autism is somehow “hardwired”, something that just happened and cannot be reversed. Some of autism is indeed “hardwired”, you cannot take an adult with autism and “re-prune” his synapses, to produce a more elegant robust network in his brain. But much can be done, because many things in the brain are changing all the time, they are not fixed at all. Today’s post is good example. GABA is the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. There are two types of GABA receptor, A and B. These receptors are made up of sub-units. There are many different possible combinations of sub-units to make GABA A receptors. These combinations are not fixed, or “hard-wired”; they vary all the time. ...

I am still looking for additional cognitive enhancing autism therapies. It seems the best way to find them may actually be to reread my own blog. A long time ago I suggested that Cinnamon could well be therapeutic in autism, most likely (but not entirely) due to the sodium benzoate (NaB) it produces in your body. https://epiphanyasd.blogspot.com/search/label/Cinnamon   Sodium benzoate (NaB) is both a drug used to reduce ammonia in your blood and a common food additive that acts as a preservative. NaB has many biological effects.   One effect relates to a protein called DJ-1, which is produced by a Parkinson’s gene (PARK7). I had noticed that when the body tries to turn on its anti-oxidant genes after the switch Nrf2 is activated, the process cannot proceed without enough DJ-1.   This is why Peter Barnes, from my Dean’s list, suggested that patients with COPD might benefit from more DJ-1.   COPD is a kind of severe asthma which occurs with severe oxidative stress, the...

Italy has many attractions, one being Lake Como (Villa Clooney).  It is also the only western country still using Cardiazol, where it is used in a cough medicine Varanasi and the Ganges, not a place you could forget, particularly the smell. India is the only other country using Cardiazo l Today’s post draws on clever things going on in Down Syndrome research to improve cognitive function, but puts them in the perspective of the faulty GABA switch.  In the United States it is estimated that 250,000 families are affected by Down Syndrome.  It is caused by a third copy of chromosome 21, resulting in up-regulation of around 300 genes.  A key feature is low IQ, this is partly caused by a physically smaller cerebellum and it appears partly by the GABA switch.   Research has shown that the cerebellum growth could be normalized, but this post is all about the GABA switch.  In an earlier very science heavy post we saw how a faulty GABA switch would degrade cogniti...