An autistic toddler given a drug to treat swelling improved so much she fell below the cut-off score for the condition, claims new research.
The two-and-a-half-year-old girl was treated with bumetanide at a hospital in Changchun, China.
Professor Feiyong Jia believes further research on Bumetanide would be “worthwhile”
Medics first gave her Vitamin D3 before they tried the diuretic bumetanide. Doctors normally use the drug to treat water retention.
Researchers, led by Professor Feiyong Jia at the First Hospital of Jilin University, gave the child .5 milligrammes twice daily.
Below autism cut-off score
After a month, the girl’s Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score was 26. This is below the autism cut-off score.
In an email, Jia said further research would be “worthwhile”.
The child’s mother has reported a number of improvements. These include better speech, less hyperactivity and more responsiveness.
Jia’s team reports the child’s latest CARS score was 20.
The French biotechnology firm Neurochlore holds the rights to bumetanide as an autism treatment.
In 2017 the firm trialled the drug on 88 autistic children and found the CARS was “significantly improved”.
More advanced trial of bumetanide
Dr Yehezkel Ben-Ari is the president of Neurochlore. In an email, he said his company is working on a more advanced trial.
Charity Thinking Autism said the study showed “some autism may be amenable to treatment”.
Researchers say bumetanide works by affecting a chemical messenger, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is thought to be important in autism.
Number of side-effects
Ben-Ari’s 2017 trial reported a number of side-effects.
One was hypokalemia, which refers to low levels of blood potassium. It can lead to abnormal heart rhythms, excessive urinating, loss of appetite and anorexia.
The case study involving the young girl has appeared in the journal Medicine.
Related:
Published: 22 January 2020
