On Feb 21, 12:12 am, "Jan Drew" wrote:
http://science.slashdot.org/article..../02/19/2252244

Possible Cure For Autism

Henry V .009 writes "Scientists in New Jersey are claiming that children
with autism are unable to metabolize key fatty acids that fight
brain-damaging inflammations. They have already developed urine/blood tests
to identify at-risk children. A preventive cure to autism may be as simple
as a 'therapeutic cocktail' of fatty acids. Human trials could start later
this year."

Sounds like a possible cure for *one* *cause* of autism. Not a cure
for autism, not even if the original cause of that autism was this
inflamation.

That is, the problem with inflamation is not likely to be the
inflamation itself but rather the damage it causes. That damage, once
done, is irreversible.

Even so, the inflamation they are referring to is unlikely to continue
throughout life anyway. For example, if autism is caused by pre-natal
rubella (a known cause of autism) the brain inflamation would have
ONLY occurred prior to birth, and yet the autism symptoms continue
throughout life.

I even doubt that inflamation is as common a cause as they think,
anyway. There is a tendency to assume that faster-than-average brain
growth in autism is swelling due to inflammation, but although I've
lost the references, I have read strong evidence showing that this
growth is in fact genuine brain growth (greater numbers of neurons
being created). Rapid brain growth in itself can be sufficient to
disrupt the processes that wire up the innate connections due to the
way the synapses are guided to their target neurons, creating a
seemingly paradoxical situation in which there are a lot of neurons
but basic innate systems are disrupted.

This doesn't mean that the process they observed *can't* happen, or
for that matter that the treatment can't be useful to at least some
people. If inflamation is causing ongoing damage for some people
throughout life, then the obvious benefit to treatment is to put an
end to the ongoing deterioration.

However, here is a little extra food for thought...

The most common cause of inflamation is stress.

Stress also disrupts fat metabolism.

They may not be observing the causes of autism at all - they may
simply be observing the symptoms of stress resulting from autism. That
there is a possibility of a feedback cycle where the stress causes
inflamation making the autism worse isn't that surprising - this kind
of thing often happens. For instance, stress also damages parts of the
brain that are responsible for regulating the stress response - the
more stress you experience, the more likely you are to experience more
severe and longer lasting stress in the future. This is probably why
anxiety disorders and depression get more severe as time goes on.