Gut Bacteria May Play a Role in Autism - Scientific American

Gut Bacteria May Play a Role in Autism - Scientific American: "So could autism one day be treated with drugs designed to restore a healthy microbial balance? Perhaps, but autism is the result of a “complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors,” explains Manya Angley, an autism researcher at the University of South Australia, so the solution may not be that simple. "



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Autism parents being preyed on???

Most certainly autism parents are/have been preyed on, but article does a good job of lumping all alternative therapies together.

BBC News - Autism parents being 'preyed on'

The National Autistic Society said therapies with no supporting evidence were being sold to parents. 

The warning comes after a BBC investigation found the use of dietary supplements and biomedical therapies being widely touted as a treatment. 

There is no cure for autism and current best practice involves the use of behavioural and educational therapies.

... more

Autism gene stunts neurons, Growth can be restored

Autism gene stunts neurons, but growth can be restored

Brown University researchers have traced a genetic deficiency implicated in autism in humans to specific molecular and cellular consequences that cause clear deficits in mice in how well neurons can grow the intricate branches that allow them to connect to brain circuits. The researchers also show in their study (online Sep. 12, 2013, in Neuron) that they could restore proper neuronal growth by compensating for the errant molecular mechanisms they identified.

BBC News - Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab

Only manifests in adults?  Really?

BBC News - Miniature 'human brain' grown in lab
"Ultimately we would like to move towards more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism. They typically manifest themselves only in adults, but it has been shown that the underlying defects occur during the development of the brain."

Full genome sequencing for autism?

First full genome sequencing for autism: Promise for future diagnosis, prevention and treatment: "A collaborative formed by Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, has found full genome sequencing examining the entire DNA code of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their family members to provide the definitive look at the wide ranging genetic variations associated with ASD. The study published online today in American Journal of Human Genetics, reports on full genome sequencing on 32 unrelated Canadian individuals with autism and their families, participants in the Autism Speaks Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE). The results include both inherited as well as spontaneous or de novo, genetic alterations found in one half of the affected families sequenced."

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Up To 75% Of Americans Functioning In Chronic State Of Dehydration ...

Chronic Dehydration More Common Than You Think « CBS Miami

Most people know that they are supposed to drink water, but up to 75 percent of Americans may be functioning in a chronic state of dehydration, according to new research.

...Water is necessary for the body to digest and absorb vitamins and nutrients. It’s also key to proper digestion, it detoxifies the liver and kidneys, and carries waste away, Webb said.

Medical marijuana halts chronic seizures in 6 year old

Medical marijuana all but halts Colorado 6-year-old’s chronic seizures | KDVR.com

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — For most of her life, 6-year-old Charlotte Figi has suffered from 20 to 60 seizures a day due to an incurable genetic disorder called Dravet Syndrome. After the use of medical marijuana, Charlotte has shown dramatic improvement 

A lengthy feature in an edition of this week’s Colorado Springs Gazette chronicles the youngster’s difficult journey 

Charlotte’s parents, Paige and Matt Figi, said the daily seizures made it impossible for Charlotte to have any kind of normal existence. The family had tried a number of remedies, like a special diet and dozens of prescribed medications, to combat the seizures. But each treatment exhibited negative side effects. 

While the diet appeared to ameliorate the seizures at first, the strict food restrictions prompted bone loss, plunging Charlotte into a preliminary stage of osteoporosis. She also suffered from respiratory, ear and bladder infections. The drugs put stress on her organs and some of the medications caused her to stop breathing. 

Paige and Matt said they had reached a stage of desperation. When the suggestion came to try a less conventional approach to their daughter’s disease, both were willing to overlook the controversial implications of a 6-year-old using medicinal marijuana. 

Because little research on medicinal marijuana usage for children existed at the time, finding doctors to treat Charlotte presented a challenge. But Paige persisted. Eventually, she found two doctors, Dr. Margaret Gedde and Dr. Alan Shackelford, to sign for a medicinal marijuana license and treat Charlotte.

Related:

• Medical Marijuana and Autism

Mendability: Sensory Enrichment Therapy and Brain Plasticity Sensory Enrichment Therapy and Brain Plasticity

Mendability: Home-Based Autism Treatment - Clinically Proven

Until recently, it was believed that the brain could not change after the first few years of life.

But new research has shown that the brain has the ability to change—grow new neural pathways and synapses—at any stage of life. This process is known as brain plasticity.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine believe that brain plasticity can be triggered by sensory enrichment.

So, we have developed an easily accessible sensory enrichment therapy you can do at home.

As brain plasticity is activated, the brain’s resiliency increases.

With the help of our personalized sensory enrichment therapy, the brain plasticity is then channeled to the areas that have the capacity to compensate for the maladaptive behavior.

Children With Autism and Therapy Dogs

Children With Autism May Benefit From Interaction With Therapy Dogs

Interactions with therapy dogs, or the introduction of an assistance dog into a household with a child who has an ASD, may help the child develop emotional attachments and interaction in a social setting based on simple and predictable patterns, without having to interpret verbal cues. The enhanced capability for social interaction they would achieve may then carry over to interpersonal communication and relationships.  

In the article "Use of Assistance and Therapy Dogs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Critical Review of the Current Evidence," Alessandra Berry, PhD and coauthors from Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy, describe the body of published study results as encouraging. They emphasize the need for larger, better designed studies in the future to confirm and build on these findings. 

Bacteroides and Autism

Bacteria boost fixes symptoms of autism in mice - health - 14 February 2013 - New Scientist

REPLACING missing gut bacteria in a mouse model of autism reverses adverse social behaviours and gut disorders associated with the condition. 

Last year, Sarkis Mazmanian and Paul Patterson at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena found that infecting pregnant mice with molecules from a flu virus caused autism-like symptoms in their offspring. The pups were less social, squeaked less and displayed repetitive behaviours. They also had a "leaky" gastrointestinal tract that allowed bacteria to move in and out of the lining. In addition, the bacteria present in their gut were significantly different from that found in mice without autism-like behaviour. 

Studies in humans have also identified links between gut bacteria and autism. For example, a 2011 study identified a significant lack of Bacteroides in children with autism. 

To investigate further, Mazmanian and Patterson fed mice with autism-like symptoms a common species of Bacteroides. The mice's gut cells subsequently appeared to have stronger connections to one another, and stopped expressing genes for signalling molecules that raise the immune response. The animals' behaviour changed as well: they stopped the repetitive behaviour and squeaked more when with the opposite sex. The work waspresented at a recent TEDx conference in Pasadena.

File under WTF. Curing Autism with Parasitic Worms?

Housecall for Health: Treating Autism With Worms « FOX News Radio


Top doctors say they are on their way to successfully treating autism…using parasitic worms. A team at Albert Einstein College of Medicine is leading a trial to see if TSO, the eggs of a whipworm, can cure the symptoms of autism.

In the past 20 years, doctors have used parasitic worms to help patients with Crohn’s Disease, and hope the worms’ effect on the immune system will stop the inflammatory response they believe is linked to autism.

Housecall for Health, I’m Chris Hoenig, FOX News Radio.

Timothy Syndrome and Autism

How Timothy Syndrome Mutation Causes Wiring Defects Associated With Cognitive Impairment

The present study reveals that a mutation of the disease-causing gene throws a key process of neurodevelopment into reverse. That is, the mutation underlying Timothy syndrome causes shrinkage, rather than growth, of the wiring needed for the development of neural circuits that underlie cognition. 

"In addition to the implications for autism, what's really exciting is that we now have a way to get at the core mechanisms tying genes and environmental influences to development and disease processes in the brain," said Dolmetsch, Senior Director of Molecular Networks at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. 

Reshaping the brain

Reshaping the brain: scientists reprogram neurons after birth | Ars Technica

they still don’t know how plastic they are—if they can change fates after they started differentiating down one particular path. In the context of brain injury, it would be useful to know if certain neural circuits could be reprogrammed and repaired by having the neurons that are already present change fates to adapt to the damage. But this has been challenging to determine, because changing the fate of specific neurons in the latter stages of differentiation has been technically difficult.

Effective or Health Fraud? DNA Testing and Autism

Autism Cures Promised by DNA Testers Belied by Regulators - Businessweek

April Hauge, a nurse practitioner in Weimar, California, spent $500 on a genetic test for her autistic son in 2009 that led to purchasing thousands of dollars in vitamins and supplements. Impressed with the results, she’s now selling advice on the approach to others.

There’s just one problem: the DNA tests and related treatments have scant backing from science and U.S. government officials. They’re untested, unproven, and may constitute “health fraud,” doctors, regulators and concerned parents said.

For alternative-medicine providers in general, the genetic tests are nothing but a “marketing tool” to sell unproven treatments, said James Laidler, a retired physician and adjunct professor at Portland State University whose 19-year-old autistic son has tried alternative therapies.

“You always hear the testimonials from the people who got better, not the people who stayed the same or got worse,” Laidler said. “They don’t want to hear somebody saying this is snake oil.”

Doctors and clinics across the U.S. are using the exploding science of DNA testing to feed anxieties and sell hope to people with autism and other hard-to-treat disorders.

Emboldened by meager state and federal regulation, purveyors of alternative medicine offer genetic tests costing hundreds of dollars to worried parents and patients, and then sell advice on supplements and diet based on results purporting to spot disease-causing deficiencies. They claim to be the panacea for everything from autism to chronic fatigue syndrome to the effects of aging.

More @ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-21/autism-cures-promised-by-dna-testers-belied-by-regulators#p1

Bumetanide (aka Bumex or Burinex), Common Heart Drug, and Autism Symptoms

Common Heart Drug Might Dampen Some Autism Symptoms - US News and World Report: "TUESDAY, Dec. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A medication typically prescribed to control high blood pressure that's commonly referred to as a water pill may ease some of the symptoms of autism, researchers say.

That's especially true for people who have milder forms of the disorder, the new research indicates.

"Bumetanide is a promising novel therapeutic agent to treat autism," wrote the study's authors, who were quick to point out that this treatment is not a cure for autism and that larger trials need to be done to determine who would benefit most from this treatment."

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Ketogenic Diet in a Pill

Pill May Replace Ketogenic Diet For Epilepsy

New drugs derived from components of a specific diet used by children with severe, drug-resistant epilepsy could offer a new treatment, according to research published today in the journal Neuropharmacology. 

Scientists from Royal Holloway, in collaboration with University College London, have identified specific fatty acids that have potent antiepileptic effects, which could help control seizures in children and adults. 

The discovery could lead to the replacement of the ketogenic diet, which is often prescribed for children with severe drug-resistant epilepsy. The high fat, low carbohydrate diet is thought to mimic aspects of starvation by forcing the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Although often effective, the diet has attracted criticism, as side effects can be significant and potentially lead to constipation, hypoglycaemia, retarded growth and bone fractures. 

More @ http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/253063.php 

Autism and the Shank3 Protein

Understanding Of Cause Puts Treatment For Autism... | Stuff.co.nz

Scientists at Auckland University's Centre for Brain Research say they have gained new understandings of the causes of autism, opening up new avenues for possible treatment.

The ground-breaking research, done in collaboration with Stanford University in the United States, looked at brain cell communication and genetic mutations in people with autism.

The team discovered that autism was caused by mutated brain proteins, called Shank3, weakening communication between brain cells.

Head researcher Jo Montgomery said that the discovery was exciting because it meant treatments could be investigated.

"Brain cells are incredibly sociable cells in the brain and they talk to each other all the time," she said.

"There are about 10 trillion brain cells connected by about 10 billion synapses which gives you an idea of how much chatter is going on in your brain at one time, and all that chatter underlies how you see things, how you move, how you learn and how you remember things.

More @ http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/7920538/Find-puts-treatment-for-autism-closer

More Proof May Be Needed That Autism Treatments Work | Psych Central News

More Proof May Be Needed That Autism Treatments Work | Psych Central News

Panelists agreed there was enough evidence to endorse the use of applied behavioral analysis, integrated behavioral/developmental programs, the Picture Exchange Communication System and various social skills interventions for Asperger’s syndrome and high-functioning autism.

Cord blood stem cells, Potential autism treatment

Cord blood stem cells being tested for potential treatment of autism - Huntsville healthy living | Examiner.com

... the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the agency had given researchers the go-ahead to launch a small study in children with autism to evaluate whether a child's own umbilical cord bloodmay be an effective treatment. 

Thirty children with the disorder, aged 2 to 7, will receive injections of their own stem cellsfrom umbilical cord blood banked by their parents after their births. 

Scientists at Sutter Neuroscience Institute, in Sacramento, Calif., said the placebo-controlled study will help determine whether the stem cell therapy helps improve language and behavior in the youngsters. 

There is anecdotal evidence that stem cell infusions may have a benefit in other conditions such as cerebral palsy, said lead study investigator Dr. Michael Chez, director of pediatric neurology at the institute. 

More @ http://www.examiner.com/article/cord-blood-stem-cells-being-tested-for-potential-treatment-of-autism

Alzheimer Drug Memantine and Autism: Study

Memantine is the first in a novel class of Alzheimer's disease medications acting on the glutamatergic system by blocking NMDA-type glutamate receptors. It was first synthesized by Eli Lilly and Company in 1968. Memantine is marketed under the brands Axura and Akatinol by Merz, Namenda by Forest, Ebixaand Abixa by Lundbeck and Memox by Unipharm.

International Trial Study is Enrolling Children with Autism

A global clinical trial involving South Florida children is studying a drug that — if proven safe and effective — would deliver a dose of hope to the autism community.

ConnectMe, an international initiative with more than 85 study centers in the United States and 185 worldwide, is investigating the effects of memantine on children with autism, Asperger’s and atypical autism(also called pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, or PDD-NOS). The hope is it will help treat the communication and social limitations at the heart of these disorders.

Billed as the largest study of its kind, ConnectMe is now enrolling South Florida children, according to Forest Laboratories Inc., the New York City-based pharmaceutical company leading the study.

If it’s shown to convincingly and safely improve trial participants’ impairments in interacting and communicating with others, researchers would seek the FDA’s nod as the first drug approved for offsetting autism’s core effects, said Dr. Peter Ventre, co-owner and principal investigator for Research Centers of America in Oakland Park, which is leading the study in South Florida.

More @ http://specialedpost.com/2012/10/21/international-trial-study-is-enrolling-children-with-autism/