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“A drug called suramin was already on the market for the treatment of the sleeping sickness spread by the tsetse fly in Africa and was known to bind to purine receptors on cells found throughout the body. Dr. Naviaux used it on both autistic and nonautistic mice when they were six months old.IV The mice were then tested on how well they interacted with mice they had never before met, and on whether they preferred sameness when put through mazes, as many autistic humans do. Suramin levels in the blood declined naturally, dropping by half for every week that passed after the initial dose. When five weeks had passed, the mice were put through the tests one final time. Throughout the study, a few mice were sacrificed from both the control and the experimental groups so the biochemistry of their neurons could be analyzed. Dr. Naviaux and his colleagues reported in Translation Psychiatry in 2014 that while some brain cells, called Purkinje cells, that would normally be found in healthy brains did not suddenly reemerge in these autistic mice, suramin ended the cellular defensive lockdown. Moreover, the team discovered major behavioral changes in these animals.” — Matt Kaplan