Home Diseases and Conditions Autism

Autism

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Development Stage

Early Stage

Focused ultrasound research is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Clinical Trials

Focused ultrasound for this condition is being researched in clinical trials.

International Approval

Focused ultrasound is approved to treat this condition outside the US. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating international sites.

FDA Approved

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved focus ultrasound for this condition. Patients can seek commercial treatment at participating sites.

Early Stage

Clinical Trials

International

FDA Approved

Focused ultrasound research for this condition is in the laboratory phase and is not yet available for patients.

Focused Ultrasound Therapy

Focused ultrasound is a therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with autism. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the body without damaging surrounding normal tissue.

How it Works
Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces a temporary blood brain barrier disruption that enables therapeutic gene delivery in a small animal model of autism.

There are no curative treatment options autism, and much of the care is supportive. For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a much needed, effective treatment option. While significant work has been accomplished, there is still much to be done before this technology will be widely available.

Advantages

  • Focused ultrasound is noninvasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.
  • Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue.
  • It can be repeated, if necessary.

Clinical Trials

At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of autism.

The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click here, it will take you to the latest information available from https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. 

Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement

Focused ultrasound treatment for autism is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies

Notable Papers

Shen Y, Li N, Sun S, Dong L, Wang Y, Chang L, Zhang X, Wang F  Non-invasive, targeted, and non-viral ultrasound-mediated brain-derived neurotrophic factor plasmid delivery for treatment of autism in a rat model. Front Neurosci. 2022 Sep 1;16:986571. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.986571. eCollection 2022.

Click here for additional references from PubMed.