Drug found to possibly reverse autism symptoms

The study, which has been published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology

"After the single dose, it was almost like a roadblock had been released,"

“The six year old and the 14 year old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion,”

Source

Researchers have found that a drug called suramin, originally developed to combat a specific disease in Africa, has been able to reverse symptoms of autism. Children given the drug began speaking and interacting in ways they hadn't in years.
The article points to a potential link between autism and cells being stuck in something called "cellular danger response", in which cells harden in response to attacks from pollutants. One of the doctors involved in the study believes this drug suramin can "unstick" the cells involved in this defense mechanism and thereby reverse symptoms of autism, as has been shown to happen in the study.

If this turns out to be true, it's great news.

originally posted by: trollz

The study, which has been published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology

"After the single dose, it was almost like a roadblock had been released,"

“The six year old and the 14 year old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion,”

Source

Researchers have found that a drug called suramin, originally developed to combat a specific disease in Africa, has been able to reverse symptoms of autism. Children given the drug began speaking and interacting in ways they hadn't in years.
The article points to a potential link between autism and cells being stuck in something called "cellular danger response", in which cells harden in response to attacks from pollutants. One of the doctors involved in the study believes this drug suramin can "unstick" the cells involved in this defense mechanism and thereby reverse symptoms of autism, as has been shown to happen in the study.

If only!
We'll see...
No expectations = no disappointments.
Really, it would be sweet! *__-

a reply to: trollz

Yes right, and the drug companies own that too undoubtly.

So now they can admit that vaccines cause autism but hay, dont worry, we got a drug that will fix it now.

It's on super special today at 10 times national weekly earnings for a one month supply.

lets see now, they make on hansome profit on selling you the vaccine, they give you autism so then they make a nother hansome profit on selling you a drug for that too. yea, right.

Oh by the way, if you dont buy it and take it as directed (daily for ???? how long to work??? then you have no come back on us. cherio

a reply to: Azureblue

I don't believe there's ever been any solid, peer reviewed evidence that vaccines cause autism. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Low-dose suramin in autism spectrum disorder: a small, phase I/II, randomized clinical trial

Outcomes
The primary outcome measures were ADOS-2 and Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary (EOWPVT) scores (Table 4). Parents reported that after suramin treatment, the rate of language, social, behavioral, and developmental improvements continued to increase for 3 weeks, then gradually decreased toward baseline over the next 3 weeks. The blood levels of suramin at 3 weeks were estimated to be 4.2 ± 0.5 μmol/L using our PK model. ADOS-2 comparison scores at 6 weeks improved by an average of −1.6 ± 0.55 points (mean ± SD; n = 5; 95% CI = −2.3 to −0.9; Cohen's d = 2.9; P = 0.0028) in the suramin treatment group and did not change in the saline group. We calculated P values by both parametric and nonparametric methods (Table 4). The mean ADOS comparison score in the suramin-treated group was 8.6 ± 0.4 at baseline and 7.0 ± 0.3 at 6 weeks. Two-way ANOVA of ADOS scores of suramin and placebo groups measured at baseline and at 6 weeks were also significant (treatment × time interaction F(1, 8) = 12.0; P = 0.0085; Figure S4A). ADOS scores were not changed in the saline-treated group (Table 4). EOWPVT scores did not change (Table 4). Several secondary outcome measures also showed improvements. These included improvements in ABC, ATEC, and CGI scores (Table 4). The Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ) scores did not capture a change.

• Source
onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
a reply to: Azureblue

I don't believe there's ever been any solid, peer reviewed evidence that vaccines cause autism. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

No, I wont correct you, I will let you get on with doing your own research but in the mean time feel free to get yourself and your kids vaccinated.

cheers

a reply to: Azureblue

Autism Study was Fake

One fake study got everyone all worked up.

People please, not that pro- vs antivax crap. Not in this treath.

if this can be confirmed in greater trials, that would be fantastic news. Small sidenote:

Boys who received a single dose of the drug showed measurable, though not permanent, improvements in autism spectrum disorder symptoms.

Some info regarding sumarin:

chemical information about Sumarin

Sumarin drug info

Clinical Trial

the study being discussed:
medical news today
UC San Diego PR
MedicalXpress

a reply to: trollz

This is promising - my nephew has acute autism and I flicked your link to my sister to take a look, she is a member of the Autism Association of WA (Western Australia).

Cheers.

Side effects - Autism related death

This will be a great breakthrough if become reality....

Twenty male subjects with ASD were screened. Sixteen met entry criteria. Ten participants could be matched by age, nonverbal IQ, and ADOS scores into five pairs. The randomization sequence was generated electronically by the biostatistical team. Subjects within each pair were allocated to receive suramin or saline according to the prospectively determined randomization sequence. The randomization sequence was concealed from the clinical team and implemented by the UCSD investigational pharmacy, which prepared drug and placebo for infusion. The design was double blind. The mask was not broken until all subjects had completed the study and all clinical data had been collected.

5 kids got the drug, 5 kids didn't. So a really tiny sample.

All the kids taking the drug got a rash, none of those who didn't got a rash. The researchers note that this might have led the parents reporting the outcomes to be extra positive since they had a side effect that led them to believe their child had taken the real drug. This is a really common side effect of this sort of data collection.

The study was done to see if further research with a wider group and the conclusion was it does but the methods used to collect the data need to be more robust. An alternative would be to give the placebo group a drug that gives them a rash also (but try getting that through an ethics committee ) which would be unethical for children and could only really be done on a group of adults but since they are testing people with weak communication skills and looking at the group of children they tested low IQ's I'm not sure that would be ethical either.

So don't get too excited yet and it looks like it won't do anything for the vast majority of people with ASD's just the few that have the same causes as the sample above. (it doesn't say how they paired them off or why they dismissed half the sample from my quick read)

I very much doubt it will help myself or my kids since we have a micro-deletion in a specific bit of DNA and genius level IQ's despite being a pain in the arse to deal with

My son has Asperger's, but is high function [ on to college in the Fall ] but he does still have some social interaction issues. He's worked so hard for 19 years to overcome all the rest of his symptoms and if only something like this had been around when he was much younger..........

If this becomes a reality, let's hope they don't charge families their life savings.
......but you know they will.

a reply to: Azureblue

Save the children.

a reply to: DAVID64

Would this treatment help Aspergers? I thought it was for Autism.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

You should read about HBOT for autism. Some good and some not so good literature but I know from experience it can be life changing.

a reply to: Azureblue

There is just as much if not more evidence to implicate genetics.

originally posted by: DAVID64
My son has Asperger's, but is high function [ on to college in the Fall ] but he does still have some social interaction issues. He's worked so hard for 19 years to overcome all the rest of his symptoms and if only something like this had been around when he was much younger..........

If this becomes a reality, let's hope they don't charge families their life savings.
......but you know they will.

The overall cost would depend largely on the pool of people who would need it. If there are a lot pf people who would need it, then the cost would be much less. Look at Viagra.

I believe that autism is the next stage of human evolution.

If you look at history most of the stand out genius were autistic (or displayed traits of). Most people with Aspergers (the previous term for high functioning autists) have high IQs and can perceive and make connections about details that non-autists miss. Most austists have at least one supercharged sense.

Take Savants for example; incredibly gifted. The man who the Rain Man character was based on could tell you what day of the week 17/8/236BC was but he could not dress himself. A documentary experiment depicted an artist who was taken to the top of a NY skyscraper for 15mins and 3 months later drew a perfect photoreal image of what he saw that day including a woman staring out a window etc. Autists can truly think outside the box because in a sense they weren't born with a box to begin with. Autists can often rub people up the wrong way because they can be too honest and use logic when making statements no matter how politically incorrect it is.

Scientists have found that an autists brain is structurally different and processes more info at once. In the case of severe autism where a child will remain mute and make repetitive motions - they are so overloaded and their brains can't filter out things like background noise, and visual stimuli so the child 'shuts' down as a way of coping with the overwhelming stimuli.

Whilist I think it's a great thing for a mute child to be given one dose of a medication and suddenly start interacting with the world - I worry that it will be over prescribed to high functioning autists. Imagine the inventions, the art and the free thinking that we would lose.