PLoS ONE: The Interaction between Early Life Epilepsy and Autistic-Like Behavioral Consequences: A Role for the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) Pathway
Early life seizures can result in chronic epilepsy, cognitive deficits and behavioral changes such as autism, and conversely epilepsy is common in autistic children. We hypothesized that during early brain development, seizures could alter regulators of synaptic development and underlie the interaction between epilepsy and autism.
Harvard researchers found that deleting one gene in certain brain cells causes autism behaviors in mice. They also discovered that treating the mice with rapamycin, an immunosuppressant drug, prevents the symptoms. Autism Speaks partially funded the study, published this month in the journal Nature.
The findings represent an important step in figuring out brain pathways that cause autism, explains the study’s senior author, Mustafa Sahin, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology at Harvard University. It also represents a very early step in determining whether rapamycin or drugs like it can help individuals with autism.
Past research has associated autism with certain brain cells in the cerebellum, a region involved in coordinating brain activity. These cells, called Purkinje cells, play an essential role in normal brain function. Studies using post-mortem tissue show that many individuals with autism have fewer of these cells than is normal.
Dr. Sahin and his team wanted to better understand the link between Purkinje cells and autism. They deleted one gene in the Purkinje cells of mice. Specifically, they deleted a gene associated with the rare disorder tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Nearly half of all individuals with TSC develop autism. Studying single-gene disorders associated with autism helps researchers pinpoint affected brain circuits and test potential treatments, Dr. Sahin explains.
Deleting the gene (either one or both copies) caused all three of autism’s core behaviors .... More @ http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/one-gene-one-drug-affect-autism-behaviors-mouse-model
.. our brains are made up of a significant amount of cholesterol, he starts with the assumption that those with Autism may not be suffering from too much cholesterol, but in fact may be suffering from too little.
In the last two years, autism cases have increased by 23 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means that one in every 88 children in the United States is on the spectrum.
While there are various treatment options available for children suffering from autism, Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, medical director of the National Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers, recently conducted a study that revealed food and nutrient sensitivities play a significant role in the lives of autistic children.
“With the average American getting over 150 pounds of sugar each year, and there being almost 85,000 new chemicals that have been added to our environment, it has become very difficult for many people's immune systems to tell friend from foe,” Teitelbaum said. “This has resulted in a marked increase in sensitivities, especially to common foods.”
The study, funded by the NAET research foundation, utilized what is known as the NAET treatment –a method that involves a desensitization technique that ultimately “teaches the immune system to get back in harmony with the environment,” Teitelbaum said.
NAET is a holistic treatment that is used to eliminate allergies of all types. According to NAET’s website, the technique uses “a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure, allopathy, chiropractic, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine.”
“It is really very simple,” Teitelbaum said of NAET. “The person holds the substance that they are sensitive to while the NAET practitioner presses on some acupressure points along the spine.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/05/29/nutritional-therapy-may-be-key-to-stopping-autism/#ixzz1wNvNWZWD
ScienceDaily (May 29, 2012) — A specific antioxidant supplement may be an effective therapy for some features of autism, according to a pilot trial from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital that involved 31 children with the disorder.
The antioxidant, called N-Acetylcysteine, or NAC, lowered irritability in children with autism as well as reducing the children's repetitive behaviors. The researchers emphasized that the findings must be confirmed in a larger trial before NAC can be recommended for children with autism.
Irritability affects 60 to 70 percent of children with autism. "We're not talking about mild things: This is throwing, kicking, hitting, the child needing to be restrained," said Antonio Hardan, MD, the primary author of the new study. "It can affect learning, vocational activities and the child's ability to participate in autism therapies."
The study appears in the June 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry. Hardan is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Packard Children's. Stanfordis filing a patent for the use of NAC in autism, and one of the study authors has a financial stake in a company that makes and sells the NAC used in the trial.
MONDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- Sensory therapies using brushes, swings and other play equipment are increasingly used by occupational therapists to treat children with developmental issues such as autism, but a large pediatricians organization says there isn't much evidence that such therapies actually work.
Still, the group isn't completely discounting the potential of sensory therapies -- it's a ripe area for research, it noted.
But before parents spend the time and money on taking children to sensory therapy, they should know that, as of now, the techniques are largely unproven.
"It's OK for parents to try these types of therapies, but there is little research backing up the effectiveness of these therapies and whether or not they improve long-term outcomes for kids with developmental disabilities," said Dr. Michelle Zimmer, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Timing of Seizures | epilepsy.com
The investigators analyzed records from patients who had an ambulatory EEG from 24-72 hours. They maintained a log of symptoms and signaled the time when symptoms occurred by pushing the event detection button during their EEG. Eight Hundred Thirty-one (831) reports were analyzed and 44 patients had definite seizure events. A total of 129 seizures were recorded with various locations in the cortex. Frontal lobe seizures occurred more frequently between noon and midnight as compared to temporal lobe seizures which occurred much more frequently between midnight and noon. A separate analysis of the frontal lobe seizures revealed a cluster of seizures that tended to center around 6:33 a.m. Temporal lobe seizures had 24 seizures that seemed to cluster around 8:50 p.m.
More @ http://www.epilepsy.com/newsletter/may12/timing
