the 'autism compound'. anyone know anything about it?

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http://www.cellceutix.com/product-candi ... pound.html

Summary - Pharmaceutical company is studying a compound that they believe could be used to treat autism.

Stumbled across this article today - can't believe it isn't all over these forums. Admittedly, it is about a month and a half old, so if the debate has already been had I do apologise.

I don't want to re-start the general debate about whether we support a 'cure', (or talk about the CEO of this company referring to autism as a 'disease', although I was pretty shocked by that), I'm just interested to know if anyone on here has any more information about it, because I couldn't find very much. Especially regarding the science behind it. Thanks.

Well, they injected rat pups with a substance that kills particular brain cells. Then they gave another drug which reversed the symptoms caused by the brain damage induced by the first drug. There's some big assumptions going on there.

Is the damage they caused really similar to autism? And how could they tell (can't ask rats to describe their experiences)? And how could they tell if the cure worked?

Given that the rat stage is very early on, and how speculative this research is, I think the CEO is just trying to make his company look "cutting edge" to investors.

Buspar was originally intended as an treatment for schizophrenia. It looked good on paper, was good in animal models, and totally failed at treating sz in humans. (So it was re-purposed as an anxiety reliever so the company could recoup it's losses.) IIRC a similar thing also happened with Tianeptine.

... Is pretty much what I was thinking. They've only looked at one aspect of what it is to be autistic in these studies, (anxiety in response to change), and I wonder if the mice could have been more anxious generally, not just in response to things associated with autism.

Also...

"Research on autism has been difficult because there has been no reliable animal model," said Dr. Krishna Menon, Chief Scientific Officer of Cellceutix.

Lol. You don't say.

Interesting about the schizophrenia drug, thanks for that.

The lab rats displayed anxiety re change? LOL! So would I, if I lived in a small cage and scientists sat up nights thinking up neat things to try out on me. But thankfully, I don't live like that ... um ... do I?

I like real cheddar on my hamburger.

Cats would be a better model. They can play with a piece of string for hours, will stare at a moving object indefinitely, are hypersensitive to stimulation....

LOL some of these comments. Yeah, if I lived in a cage and someone was randomly putting needles in me I'd be pretty anxious and behaving 'abnormally,' too!

On a semi-serious note, the chemical they gave the rats specifically destroys serotonin producing cells. I don't know enough about neurology and such, but it makes me wonder if that's not the same as giving someone the opposite of Prozac. IOW, that wouldn't it make a someone (or some rat in this case) anxious and depressed. And, of course, again, how is that the same as autism.