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...

  Peter the wild boy, with Pitt Hopkins Syndrome I recently returned from a 25 year class reunion; of the 200 or so class members about 120 turned up. Of the 200 we know that at least 5 have a son with autism and at least one has a nephew with autism.  So I had my first ever “autism lunch” discussing all those tricky issues we are left to deal with. What was immediately apparent was how different each child’s “autism” was and that none of them were the autism-lite variants that are now being so widely diagnosed in older children. or even adults .  Of the six, two are non-verbal, one is institutionalized, yet one talks a lot.  Three sets of parents are big ABA fans and one child did not respond to ABA. You may be wondering about that high incidence of autism.  This was not a gathering of science boffins or mathematicians; this was at a business school.  One thing is obvious, you can correlate some autism incidence with educational level.  You can conne...

Today’s post was driven by another attempt not to take a statin. Statins are among the world’s most prescribed, and yet most maligned, drugs.  Hundreds of millions of people take a statin drug every day to lower their cholesterol, but a small, vocal minority complain about muscle pains, memory loss and even type 2 diabetes. Since my Polypill is evidently a therapy, and not a cure, for autism, the odds are that it will be needed life-long.  Regardless of the apparent lack of side-effects, nobody should be taking drugs/supplements that are not really needed.  Atorvastatin (Lipitor/Sortis) is part of my Polypill for the type of autism affecting Monty, aged 11, with ASD. Every time I stop the statin part of my Polypill therapy, I end up starting it again after only a one day break.  I notice all sorts of little behavioral changes that I really do not want to see.    These changes involve loss of initiative, flexibility and motivation.  I really do not see...