PLT Test Blog

The mechanism controlling transporting just the “right” number of GABA A receptors Today’s post is not for the faint-hearted.   It is another one that could just keep on rolling.   Ling will like it. It again shows that GABA A receptors are at the centre of much autism, whether single gene or idiopathic. Today we highlight what can go wrong as these receptors are “transported”. Today’s post also draws on several quite recent papers. It seeks to tie together some previous things mentioned in this blog like the symptoms of pain, particularly felt in the head, sensory sensitivity with dysfunction processes like autophagy and linking it all back to the GABA A  receptor.  There is even a link at the end to the "fever effect", which occurs when a high temperature in some people causes a marked improvement in their autism symptoms. We will come across some expensive drugs like Erenumab, the medical food PEA ( Palmitoylethanolamide) and indeed Natasa’s favourite, CBD ( Can...

    A microglial cell, labelled in green, contacts and attacks a myelinated axon (in red). In the presence of the pHERV-W envelope protein, this interaction leads to axonal injury. The blue structures are cell nuclei. Credit: HHU / Joel Gruchot / Patrick Küry     It is surprising that only about 2% of human DNA encodes the 20,000 or so genes we all have.   The other 98% used to be called junk DNA. About 8% of your DNA is made up of Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) that have been picked up during evolution and most of which have been inactivated and can indeed be regarded as junk. Some of these old viruses that became part of human DNA remain fully functional, can be activated; they are implicated in disease ranging from Multiple Sclerosis (MS), to cancer, to schizophrenia and ALS (motor neuron disease). The best documented ERV is the one that affects some people with MS, it is called HERV-W  (the H is for Human).   Only in the presence of a protein ...