Biogen / Isis Partnership Readies Autism Drug For Human Clinical Trials

A not well know secondary effect of a drug that Biogen and Isis are jointly developing  may reverse some or all the effects of a specific single gene  type of autism.  This drug will be entering Human Trials in 2014 if all goes well.   In August Biogen and Isis announced a collaboration on a drug that looks extremely promising to treat a form of muscular dystrophy, Myotonic Dystrophy. But it may also reverse the symptoms of autism that occurs in some not well known forms of myotonic dystrophy in children. This could be a sleeper drug that may help with this larger and more pervasive societal problem.

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Autism Spectrum Disorder in Congential and Childhood Myotonic Dystrophy

Issues and problems with children that have congenital or juvenile myotonic dystrophy are many and hard to pin down. One of the most asked questions is about Autism and do children with Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy have Autism or Autism spectrum disorder. The basic criteria more are defined below for Autism like Features are before 3 years old the following 3 features are delayed or not present:

(A) social interaction,
(B) language as used in social communication
(C) symbolic or imaginative play

The most advanced countries in the world studying these diseases are in the Scandinavian countries. Sweden has taken the lead in publishing a number of English studies that have helped understand this condition.  Dr, Eckstrom and others have done a fine job in the area of pulling more information out of surveys and studies to assist us with the understanding of this disease. This article is going to summarize the results of a study that was finished in 2008. There is a lot of information here so it will be a longer post:

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