Neurotransmitters - excess glutamate in autism

[Guest guest]

Hi Tami,

re high levels of glutamate (and low GABA) in autism this is imo very likely linked to dysfunction in the enzyme called Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamic_acid_decarboxylase

I wrote about this in my calcium paper, as the dysfunction of GAD seems linked to general dysfunction of cellular calcium homeostasis in autism... (again due to all our usual suspects...)

sorry no answers as to what to do about it apart from general anti-xxx treatments, but also maybe look into vitK protocol if you haven't already?!

A postmortem study revealed greatly reduced levels of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) 65 and 67 kDa proteins in several areas of the brains of individuals with autism [12372652].This was confirmed by more recent results that showing GAD67 mRNA level reduced by 40% in the autistic group when compared to controls [17235515]. Another study found serum levels of glutamate in the patients with autism were significantly higher than those of normal controls [16863675]. Gamma-aminobutyric acid GABA is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) is the enzyme responsible for conversion of excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate to GABA in the brain, and its activity is regulated by calcium homoestasis - it has been demonstrated that the activity of GAD depends on the strict balance of extracellular and intracellular levels of calcium, as well as between the free and stored calcium in the cell [6856025, 12603819, 10366697, 12603819]. In addition, the expression levels of mRNA of genes encoding for GAD and GABA appear to be regulated by calcium transients in developing neurons [11085875, 16154277] (also see Brain)

You can access those studies through http://www.autismcalciumchannelopathy.com/Neurotransmitters.html paragraph near bottom of the page

Hth

Natasa