PLT Test Blog

Today’s post is about further refining antioxidant therapy. As we saw in a recent post, oxidative and nitrosative stress is a very common feature of autism and is treatable with OTC products. The cheapest antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), looks to be the best one, but there are numerous others with exotic names and equally   exotic prices. Today we just look at selenium and molybdenum.   Selenium was on my to-do list for a long time because it affects some key enzymes call GP X (glutathione peroxodases). Molybdenum was enthusiastically recommended in a recent comment and this blog has previously touched on Molybdenum Cofactor Sulfurase (MOCOS). Rather surprisingly, there is a commercial product that contains NAC, Selenium and Molybdenum.   Selenium and GP X (glutathione peroxodases) There are eight different glutathione peroxodases , but GPx1 , GPx2 , GPx3, and GPx4 are all made from selenium. GP X speeds up the antioxidant reactions that involve glutathione (...

When I started this blog I was actually serious about a widely available Polypill for autism.   Over time I accepted that this really is an idea ahead of its time, so my Polypill has become more an example of personalized medicine.  I was pleased that at least one other very different Polypill solution exists to treat a separate (Swiss) sub-type of autism, but based on the same science. No doubt more exist, but remain hidden. There is of course also the Dr Kelley, formerly of Johns Hopkins, mito-cocktail for regressive autism. I think this could be further improved, just based on what has been covered in this blog. Instead of producing a Polypill, I decided to continue my research and take the much easier option of writing a book about it, when I have “finished”.  So another cranky book on autism, but my one. As I collect together all the ideas in this blog and in the unpublished posts, I also started to fill in gaps in the bigger story.  I cannot ignore the hun...

  A festive queue at the pharmacy for Glutamate Inhibitors We have now established that much autism and indeed other disorders, from Down Syndrome to Schizophrenia, features a degree of excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance. It is very likely that there are multiple underlying causes for this and so there may be multiple treatments.   We can even potentially use a treatment for one cause (ALS) to improve outcomes in others.   So we can (partially) solve a problem without fully understanding its origin, as frequently is the case in biology. An E/I imbalance might cause anxiety in the adult with Asperger (treatable with Baclofen), contribute to MR/ID in the child with Down Syndrome and contribute to seizures and cognitive loss in someone with severe autism. Very interestingly in the comments to a previous post, Agnieszka has pointed out why common penicillin type antibiotics (beta-lactams) improve many people’s autism.   This is very common observation and our other gu...

In this example of Brain Injury, developing oligodendrocytes are injured and killed by substances released from activated microglia , including nitric oxide and superoxide, which form peroxynitrite. Peroxynitrite has been found to kill these cells through the activation of the 12-lipoxygenase pathway for metabolizing arachidonic acid. Mitochondria may be involved in this pathway as a source of reactive oxygen species. Much has been written in this blog about oxidative stress, which has now been extremely well researched in autism and more generally. Let’s recap oxidative stress. The most knowledgeable researcher in this area is Abha Chauhan.   Based on her research and that of others we now know a great deal.   Recall that the body’s key antioxidant is called glutathione (GSH) and when it neutralizes a free radical GSH is converted to its oxidized form, glutathione disulfide (GSSG).   A good measure of oxidative stress is the ratio of  GSH/GSSG. ·    ...