[autismo-biologia] Propranololo

daniela marianicerati marianicerati a yahoo.it
Dom 17 Nov 2013 23:38:57 CET


 
Un vecchio farmaco beta bloccante, il propranololo, sta
dando risultati incoraggianti nell’autismo
http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/conference-news/2013/society-for-neuroscience-2013/drug-improves-social-cognitive-skills-in-people-with-autism
Riporto alcune considerazioni in merito del farmacologo Dottor
Giuseppe Recchia

"Questo è interessante per 2 motivi:
 1.      Interessa
i sintomi core dei ASD
2.      Riguarda
un farmaco (generico) già in commercio per altre indicazioni (e pertanto
rapidamente disponibile per la sperimentazione)
 Il
problema è il solito della terapia dell’ASD : sempre studi piccoli, che
sollevano ipotesi senza verificarle (ovvero confermare o escludere).
Per la ricerca sull’autismo il primo
bisogno è rappresentato dalla realizzazione di una rete di centri di ricerca
clinica in grado di verificare le ipotesi raccolte da altri (o generate da se
stessi), come ad esempio questa.
GR"

 The drug propranolol
improves social behavior and cognition in teenagers and young adults with
autism, suggest results from a small trial presented Sunday at the 2013 Society
for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego. Propranolol is approved to treat anxiety, high
blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythms. 

At last year's Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, David Beversdorf’s
group at the University of Missouri, Columbia
showed that propranolol enhances functional connectivity between certain brain
regions and improves verbal fluency in people with autism. Another study published
last year found that the drug improves memory and attention deficits in
individuals with the disorder.
Both of these studies, however, are based on small numbers.

The new study tested the drug in 20 high-functioning people with autism who
have intelligence quotients higher than 85. The individuals, 19 men and 1
woman, were between 15 and 31 years old.
The researchers recorded the participants' heart rates and perspiration
before the experiment to gauge their levels of anxiety and stress. They then
gave ten of the participants a single dose of propranolol and the other ten a
placebo. Neither the researchers nor the individuals knew who received which
treatment. After an hour, about the time it takes for propranolol to cross the
blood-brain barrier, a researcher engaged the participants in one-on-one
conversation and rated their sociability, including whether they stayed on
topic and asked questions.
For the cognitive tests, the researchers
measured verbal problem-solving by asking the participants to solve 20
anagrams, such as turning IRBCK into BRICK. They also asked the participants to
memorize a list of 12 words and tested their memory of the list later.

They found that the participants who took propranolol earned better overall
scores than people taking the placebo. "We're seeing an improvement with
the drug and it's really exciting," says lead investigator Rachel Zamzow,
a graduate student of neuroscience in Beversdorf's lab. Compared with the
placebo, propranolol also improves nonverbal behaviour, such as whether a
participant's shoulders face another person during conversation and whether he
leans in as he talks to someone. Those who got propranolol also solved the
anagrams faster than the controls, suggesting improvements in verbal problem
solving.

Interestingly, participants who had higher heart rate variability at the start
of the two experiments benefited most from propranolol. It's possible that the
drug selectively helps people with autism who have high levels of stress or
anxiety, Zamzow says. "The hope is that they would come into a clinician's
office and maybe have their sympathetic activity measured before they're even
put on a drug that might not benefit them," she says.
-------------- parte successiva --------------
Un allegato HTML è stato rimosso...
URL: http://autismo33.it/mailman/private/autismo-biologia/attachments/20131117/ae31262f/attachment.html


Maggiori informazioni sulla lista autismo-biologia