Let me be clear, I am not clear to argue with anyone about autism, vaccines, or the content I feel for bad science (if you get what I am saying). I am just here to talk about what my classmates and I have talked about over the past week.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) consists a multitude of varying disorders in which people have impairment in social and communication skills. Within the autism spectrum there is autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder. In the past two decades, the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has increased drastically. It is difficult to pin point a single reason why this is occurring.
What our class focused on this week in our discussions was polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). PUFAs are fatty acids that are essential to proper brain function. What I have learned from class is that PUFAs help regulate processes that involve cell proliferation. In ASDs, PUFAs are either not metabolized properly or are not doing their jobs. This leads the problems seen in ASDs.
One thing that I found interesting from this article was the importance of prenatal care. Research has indicates that maternal infections leading to an inflammatory response may elicit altered gene expression lead to dysfunction of brain function as well as alterations in PUFA metabolism. This suggests that proper prenatal care is crucial in the combat against ASDs. One way noted in the paper was a diet rich in PUFAs. A diet high in PUFAs will provide the growing fetus with the necessary nutrients to maintain proper brain development.
That most interesting thing that I learned all week was that there is a potential cure of autism that has reached its clinical trials. This means that the study has moved past animal testing and plans to test the drug in humans. This drug is known as Suramin. Suramin is a drug that has been on the market for many years for the treatment of African Sleep Sickness but it has recently been seen to help alleviate some of the symptoms in autism. I am not going to go into the specifics of the science behind this new hope for autism but if you want to check out some information I advise you to look at the following articles.
“Purinergic signaling is involved in many biological processes linked to autism, such as the development of synapses, or junctions between neurons, as well as gut permeability, immune responses, brain inflammation, and the activation of microglia, the brain’s immune cells. “The cell danger response theory explains so much that was inexplicable before.”
“Antipurinergic Therapy Corrects the Autism-Like Features in the Poly(IC) Mouse Model”
I’m PUFA for Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
