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Special Needs Research and News
Gainesville Music Therapy parents receive frequent e-mails with the articles of interest to the special needs community, including research on Autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD, etc.; conferences and trainings being offered in the local area; and information on music therapy practice. If you would like to receive these articles, and/or our monthly newsletter by e-mail, please e-mail us to join the mailing list.
Monday, March 12, 2007Study offers potential treatment for Down syndromeby Los Angeles TimesLab mice with the mental retardation of Down syndrome became smarter after being fed a drug that strengthened brain circuits involved in learning and memory, researchers reported. After receiving once-daily doses of pentylenetetrazole, or PTZ, for 17 days, the mice could recognize objects and navigate mazes as well as normal mice did, researchers said. The improvements lasted up to two months after the drug was discontinued, according to the report Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Scientists said the study opened an avenue for research in a field that had seen little success. "These mice are essentially restored to normal, which I haven't seen before," said David Patterson, a Down syndrome researcher at the University of Denver, who was not involved in the study. "And the treatment seems to be long-lasting, which is a pretty surprising observation all by itself." Senior study author Craig C. Garner, a Stanford School of Medicine professor, said his lab was preparing to conduct human trials of the drug, although he said it would take time to complete more preliminary studies and procure a supply of purified PTZ. People with Down syndrome should not be given the drug until it has been studied further, he cautioned, because PTZ can induce seizures at high doses and might have other serious side effects. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. The syndrome occurs in 1 of 660 births and usually causes cognitive deficits, cardiac problems and physical abnormalities, such as low muscle tone, short stature and an upward slant to the eyes. More than 300,000 Americans have Down syndrome, making it the leading cause of mental retardation. There is no approved drug to improve cognition in people with Down syndrome. PTZ blocks gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, researchers said, a neurotransmitter that passes messages between neurons along specific brain pathways. Normal brains have a balance of neurotransmitters that excite neurons and make learning possible, and GABA, which slows neurons down so they do not become overly stimulated. It is believed that people with Down syndrome have too much GABA, causing inhibition of the brain circuits involved in learning and memory. PTZ was used until 1982 to enhance cognition in the elderly and mentally impaired people, but it was removed from the market by the Food and Drug Administration because studies showed no clear benefits. Garner said he believed the drug failed in part because patients adhered to a different dosing schedule from the one used in mice. The mice used in the study were genetically altered to possess cognitive impairments similar to those of Down syndrome patients. The mice that were fed PTZ were compared with healthy mice and untreated altered mice in tests of their mental abilities. The research was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and several foundations, including the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation, which was started in California's Silicon Valley by parents of children with Down syndrome. Patricia O'Brien White, a co-founder of the foundation, said medical advances since the 1980s have more than doubled the life span of people with Down syndrome to 56, increasing the likelihood that they will outlive the parents who care for them. A small gain in cognition would allow a significant number of people with Down syndrome to hold jobs and live independently, she said. |