[NewUser76312]

Interesting indeed. Does such a finding suggest any worthwhile easy-to-try 'treatments' that may help alleviate symptoms?

I don't know much about the biochemistry here, I assume this is not something like GABA that can be directly supplemented. But maybe there are precursor nutritional and supplemental substances that can help these people upregulate how much of the glutamate molecule in question the body can produce.

[wizzwizz4]

There isn't enough information to start doing that. Consider: UV exposure results in sunburn, cellular damage, and increased skin pigmentation. We have medication that reduces skin pigmentation. Should we give it to people who experience chronic sunburn?

[esseph]

The third paragraph:

> Now, a new study in The American Journal of Psychiatry has found that brains of autistic people have fewer of a specific kind of receptor for glutamate, the most common excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. The reduced availability of these receptors may be associated with various characteristics linked to autism.

Reduce receptors. This might suggest a _developmental_ or genetic link. Think of this more like "height" or a particular "facial feature" of a person.

[guerrilla]

God, why are so many people commenting out of their depth today.

> Reduce receptors. This might suggest a _developmental_ or genetic link. Think of this more like "height" or a particular "facial feature" of a person.

No. This isn't how it works at all. Receptor counts are extremely plastic, able to change within a weeks and in some cases hours. This is how you get drug tolerance.

[esseph]

Sure, but they're also 15% lower in people with autism, and shown with a 60-90% heritability.

Supplimentation would not rewrite SHANK3.

You can go to the dentist and get your teeth aligned, but there's a very good chance your children have similar issues.

[GoatInGrey]

Unless you can get the blastocyst and fetus to take supplements, any treatment would be attempting to undo the effects that have already taken place.

For now, your best options are ESDM, occupational therapy, modified CBT, ABA, or neurofeedback, depending on your circumstances and presentation. Except for neurofeedback, these are behavioral approaches, so the architectural and neural activity variations aren't directly addressed.

[zmmmmm]

Receptors quite readily remodel in response to external factors. It is one of the things antidepressants do.

To me it's kind of the biggest red flag here, if it's really about receptors then autism should be far more plastic than it is currently defined to be (which is kind of silly since at the moment any sign of plasticity puts you outside one of the hard criteria for an autism diagnosis - so almost definitionally, it can't be the answer).

[guerrilla]

A lot of people in the corresponding Reddit threads claim that NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) might help.

[robwwilliams]

The paper is concerned mainly with one of several glutamate receptor subtypes.

[NewUser76312]

Meta comment - what a weird comment to downvote. I am expressing curiosity in good faith after reading the article, with a fairly logical follow up. What is the point of commenting in this community if it's primarily cynicism and negativity?

[ThrowawayR2]

Commenting about voting isn't allowed by the HN guidelines. A link to the guidelines is available at the bottom of the page.