Exploring the Science and Treatment of ADHD, Autism and Dyslexia

Neurofibromatois is a genetic disorder that manifests in children as learning difficulties but by the teenage years tumors and cafe-au-lait spots appear. The genetic disorder causes the body to produce to much Ras, a protein that plays an important role in learning. Researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) have been looking for a drug therapy which counter-acts the excessive RAS. As this would be a drug that suffers of Neurofibromatois would need to take everyday for life they needed the drug to be extremely safe and side-effect free.
This is no easy task but the researchers got a lucky break when one of them was on a clinical rotation in another area that was dealing withStatins, which are used to lower cholesterol. These work on Ras and the statins have already been proven to be safe over long-periods of time.
To test the statins the researchers used genetically modified mice that had neurofiibromatois. Half were given the statins and half a placebo before being trained to follow a blinking light for a food reward. Those given the statins showed a 30% improvement over a control group.
This discovery will not only have an important effect on people with neurofibromatosis but my prompt further discoveries in other learning difficulties.
See: UCLA scientists use statins to overcome learning disabilities in mice