Drugs which may help autistic children being trialled in Auckland
AUCKLAND: Two new drugs being trialled in Auckland could help autistic youngsters focus better at school, interact with others more comfortably and hold down a job, researchers are hoping.
The medications, which work by altering the bacteria in a person’s gut, are also being trialled in Sydney and Brisbane.
Axial Biotherapeutics preclinical research and development senior vicepresident Stewart Campbell said studies had found children with autism produced high levels of particular metabolites which were much lower or not present at all in the gut of other children.
Studies showed those substances caused mice to behave in the same way as mice bred with an autistic profile, he said.
Dr Campbell said the two medications, a carbonbased drug and a probiotic, aimed to either mop up the harmful metabolites like a sponge or change the behaviour of other gut bacteria so they produced less of the substance.
‘‘We think there’s an underlying anxiety component that seems to be operating in a lot of kids with autism.
‘‘When anybody gets anxious it manifests in all types of behaviours.’’
In autistic children it appeared to come out in classic autism behaviours of repetitive motion and social withdrawal.
‘‘So we think that if we can just damp down the anxiety level maybe it would have a downstream impact where some of these other manifestations are damped down as well.’’
Dr Campbell said reducing anxiety had the potential to help children focus better at school and help them interact more comfortably with others.
Paediatrician and study lead Rebecca Griffith said the drugs also had the potential to improve gut function and deal with abdominal pain, diarrhoea and constipation which were common characteristics of the condition. Autism New Zealand said little was known about the condition so it supported such exploratory research.
Altogether Autism national manager Catherine Trezona warned parents to treat with caution drugs and supplements which claimed to help autistic children.
So far there was nothing that had been proven to work, she said.