![](\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.05\/thumbnail\/592daf19c361885f4d8b4605.jpg\")
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A drug discovered more than 100 years ago may hold the key to combating autism symptoms, according to a study.<\/p>\n
Researcher Dr Robert Naviaux<\/a> of the San Diego School of Medicine gave suramin, a drug first developed in 1916, to 10 autistic boys between the ages of five and 14, and noted transformative results.<\/p>\n “After the single dose, it was almost like a roadblock had been released,”<\/em> he said<\/a>. \u201cIf the future studies show that there\u2019s continued health benefits, this could be a game-changer for families with autism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The study, which has been published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology<\/a>, saw five of the participants receive suramin, while the remainder were given placebos. Included in the group were four non-verbal children \u2013 two six year olds and two 14 year olds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d<\/em> Naviaux told the UC San Diego Health website<\/a>. \u201cThis did not happen in any of the children given the placebo.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates<\/a> that about 1 in 68 children are affected by autism \u2013 which is more than four times more common among boys. The causes of autism, however, are not yet fully understood.<\/p>\n Research has shown that cells harden their membranes in response to attacks from viruses or pollutants. The reaction, known as \u2018cellular danger response\u2019 (CDR), is a common defense mechanism that allows cells to wait for danger to pass. Autism is thought to develop during early childhood when cells can become \u2018stuck\u2019 in this mode.<\/p>\n Dr Naviaux believes that suramin can \u2018un-stick\u2019 the cells by inhibiting the signal they release when they sense danger, which can help normalize the response.<\/p>\n One parent, whose son had not spoken a full sentence in more than a decade, said: \u201cWithin an hour after the infusion, he started to make more eye contact with the doctor and nurses in the room. There was a new calmness at times, but also more emotion at other times.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe started to show an interest in playing hide-and-seek with his 16-year-old brother. He started practicing making new sounds around the house. He started seeking out his dad more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Suramin was originally developed as a cure for sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease spread by the tsetse fly in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n First tested on mice in 2013, this is the first time suramin has been administered to children.<\/p>\n For Naviaux, the challenge now is to widen his research to a bigger sample testing size.\u00a0\u201cThis work is new and this type of clinical trial is expensive,\u201d <\/em>he said. \u201cWe did not have enough funding to do a larger study. And even with the funding we were able to raise, we had to go $500,000 in debt to complete the trial.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A drug discovered more than 100 years ago may hold the key to combating autism symptoms, according to a study. Researcher Dr Robert Naviaux of the San Diego School of Medicine gave suramin, a drug first developed in 1916, to 10 autistic boys between the ages of five and 14, and noted transformative results. “After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":310494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-310493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}