Effect of lovastatin on behavior in children and adults with fragile X syndrome: An open‐label study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) results from dynamic mutations leading ultimately to the absence of expression of the Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP). It is characterized by synaptic upregulated protein synthesis and immature dendritic spines associated with altered brain plasticity and cognitive functions. Recent work in Fmr1 knockout mice has shown that lovastatin, an inhibitor of Ras-ERK1/2, normalized hippocampus protein synthesis. We hypothesize that lovastatin, as a disease-modifying drug, would counterweigh the absence of FMRP and improve behavior. Here we report a phase I study to assess the safety and efficacy of lovastatin in individuals with FXS. A total of 15 patients (13 males, 6-31 years old) were treated with escalating doses of lovastatin (up to 40 mg) for three months. Their behavior were assessed before and after treatment using the Aberrant Behavioral Checklist--Community (ABC-C) total score (primary outcome), as well as domains of the FXS validated version of the ABC-C (secondary outcomes). The treatment was well tolerated and minimal side effects were reported. Significant improvement in the primary outcome (P<0.005), as well as in secondary outcomes, were observed in the majority of the subjects (12/15). We think that long-term sustained treatment with diseased-modifying drugs would be necessary in order to improve behavior and ultimately learning. Lovastatin, well known for its long-term security profile, would be a good candidate for that purposes. Our study showing reassuring safety data along with potential functional benefit emphasizes the need of a placebo-controlled trial to ascertain lovastatin efficacy in FXS individuals.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".