PLT Test Blog

Some people find this blog too complicated and would prefer it to be simplified; i t would be great if all the science could be accurately described in very simple terms. This blog has ended up going into far more detail than I had ever intended, because if you want to get to the bottom of a problem you have to keep digging until you get to what is relevant.   The relevant part is not near the surface, as you will see in today’s post, but many potential therapeutic options are sitting there in plain view, obscured only   by the scientific jargon. eIF4E, ADNP, Alzheimer’s, Tauopathy and Autism In today’s post I am drawing together material from autism, Alzheimer’s and other so-called tauopathies.   The post ends up with the suggestion that an existing antiviral drug called Ribavirin, which affects a very specific part of mTOR signaling, could be a useful autism therapy and should be the subject of a serious clinical trial. Tauopathies sound interesting.   Tau pr...

Today’s post looks deeper into the biology of those people who respond to the drug bumetanide, which means a large sub-group of those with autism, likely those with Down Syndrome and likely some with schizophrenia. It is a rather narrow area of science, but other than bumetanide treatment, there appears to be no research interest in further translating science into therapy.     So it looks like this blog is the only place to develop such ideas. I did not expect this post would lead to a practical intervention, but perhaps it does. As you will discover, the goal would be to restore a hormone called estradiol to its natural higher level, perhaps by increasing an enzyme called aromatase, which appears to be commonly downregulated in autism.   This should increase expression of neuroligin 2, which should increase expression of the ion transporter KCC2; this will lower intracellular chloride and boost cognition. It seems that those people using Atorvastatin may have alrea...