After using a cheap medication typically prescribed to cancer patients, a mute autistic child uttered his first words.
At the age of two and a half, Mason Conner of Arizona received an autism diagnosis after his mother saw that he was not speaking.
Mason’s parents met with a doctor who was investigating novel, experimental treatments for autism after years of unsuccessful therapies and treatments.
The family was advised to take Leucovorin, a generic medication made from folic acid, by Dr. Richard Frye, a pediatric neurologist at Rossignol Medical Center in Arizona.
Mason uttered his first words at the age of three three days after beginning the $2.50 tablets.
Folic acid, sometimes known as vitamin B9, is necessary for the production and repair of DNA. Leafy vegetables, peas, lentils, beans, eggs, yeast, and liver are all natural sources of folate.
Usually administered to cancer patients, leucovorin helps shield their red blood cells from chemotherapy.
However, research indicates that certain autistic children may have a blockage that prevents them from receiving adequate folate, which may lead to communication problems.
It is believed that leucovorin can help get around that obstruction.
Dr Frye told CBS News: “[Leucovorin] could really have a substantial impact on a very good percentage of children with autism.”
Just under 2 million children in the US, or one in 36, have autism, according to the most recent CDC data.
Although some can be tested as early as age two, most people with the disease are typically diagnosed by the time they are five years old.
The National Institutes of Health estimates that folate receptor autoantibodies, a kind of antibody that attacks healthy parts of the body, are present in almost seven out of ten autistic children.
Language delays may result from folate receptor autoantibodies, which block folate from entering the brain.
Because it has been demonstrated to guard against abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord, folic acid is also present in the majority of prenatal vitamins taken by pregnant women.
Forty-four autistic children with these autoantibodies received 50 mg of leucovorin daily for four months as part of one of Dr. Frye’s research.
Language, behavior, hyperactivity, mood, attention, and hostility all improved for each patient.
Leucovorin treatment resulted in “significant” gains in language, as well as improvements in irritation, hyperactivity, and lethargy, according to another 2018 study conducted by Dr. Frye’s team.
Leucovorin is available as an infusion, injection, and tablet.
Dr Frye said: “We’ve done the science, and the next step is that we want to get more funding so we can actually get it FDA approved.”
According to earlier studies, some autistic children have blood antibodies that block folate (vitamin B9) from reaching the brain, resulting in a deficit.
A reduced form of folate called leucovorin can get past those antibodies and enter the brain.
Although doctors can prescribe leucovorin off-label for autism, the FDA has only approved it for patients receiving chemotherapy and those with certain types of anemia.
The number of physicians that do this is yet unknown, though.
Dr. Frye worries that there is little incentive to invest in research because of the drug’s low cost.
Pregnant mothers who take folic acid may lower their child’s risk of autism by 40%, according to earlier research.
Mason is still on Leucovorin at the age of five. His parents anticipate enrolling him in regular kindergarten this autumn after he was previously nonverbal.
