Autism Therapy: agonist

definition of agonist: Chemical that binds to the same receptor as a chemical naturally found in the body and/or brain, and functions like that chemical. For example, a dopamine agonist activates dopamine receptors even though it is not dopamine.

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Antagonistic Activity of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) on Dopaminergic Modulation: Apomorphone-Induced Stereotypic Behavior in Mice
Pharmacology, by Deshpande, C., Dhir A., and Kulkarni SK, published in 2006, summarized Oct 21, 2006

This article shows that mice treated with vitamin C (ascorbate) have a complicated response to the treatment: low doses produce more stereotyped behavior; and higher doses produce less.

Dopamine agonists, or compounds that act like dopamine in the brain (for example, amphetamines), produce repetitive, stereotyped behavior in humans and other animals. This article showed that mice that were exposed to a dopamine agonist had less stereotyped behavior if they had been treated with vitamin C at a relatively high dose, and more stereotyped behavior when they were treated with a lower dose of vitamin C. Also, vitamin C at the higher dose made several psychiatric drugs, including haloperidol, more effective in treating these stereotyped behaviors. The authors conclude that vitamin C at higher doses reduces the activity of the dopamine system.


Chronic Ascorbate Potentiates the Effects of Chronic Haloperidol on Behavioral Supersensitivity but not D2 Dopamine Receptor Binding
Neuroscience, by Pierce, RC, Rowlett JK, Bardo MT, and Rebec GV, published in 1991, summarized Oct 21, 2006

This article demonstrates that rats treated with vitamin C (ascorbate) had similar behavior to those treated with the tranquilizer haloperidol, but that vitamin C and the tranquilizer acted through two different mechanisms.

It is known that in animals, vitamin C has similar effects as the tranquilizer haloperidol, so some researchers think that vitamin C and haloperidol act through similar mechanisms. In this study, the authors test this idea. First they show that rats exposed to a dopamine agonist (a dopamine-like compound) will respond with more sniffing behavior if they have been treated with low-dose vitamin C or haloperidol as compared to rats treated with placebo. Then, they examine the brains of these rats to see if the treatments caused changes in dopamine receptors. They found that rats treated with haloperidol alone had more dopamine receptors compared to rats treated with placebo, but that rats treated with vitamin C alone did not. The authors conclude that even though vitamin C and haloperidol result in similar behavioral effects, they do not affect the dopamine system in the same way.


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