A class of drugs used to treat anxiety and epileptic seizure reduces some autistic behaviors in mice, when given in low, non-sedating doses.聽 These findings point to the possibility of testing a new therapeutic approach to managing autism in people. The findings are reported in the March 19 issue of the CELL journal Neuron.
William Catterall, 91探花chair and professor聽 of pharmacology, is senior author of聽 the research paper.
鈥淭hese are very exciting results because they suggest that existing drugs, called benzodiazepines, might be useful in treatment of the core deficits in autism,鈥� he said
These deficits include repetitive behaviors and difficulty relating to others.聽The condition is often聽accompanied by specific聽learning problems.聽Catterall explained that a particular, well-studied聽strain of mice聽acts in聽ways that聽resemble these聽autistic traits.聽 Scientists are interested in their brain chemistry.
Normally, inhibitory nerve cells in the brain聽send chemical signals that put the brake on excitatory nerve cells. Research indicates that the strain of mice with autistic behaviors have lower activity of inhibitory neurons and higher activity of excitatory neurons in the brain.聽In the study, scientists restored the balance with low, nonsedating聽doses of benzodiazipine.
鈥淥ur results provide strong evidence that increasing inhibitory neurotransmission is an effective approach to improvement of social interactions, repetitive behaviors, and cognitive deficits in a well-established autism animal model that has some similar behavioral features as human autism,鈥� Catterall said.
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on the research.