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shared by J B on 14 May 11 - No Cached

It is a moment of triumph for Chase, one of an estimated 90,000 in the U.S. who live with an inherited form of intellectual disability known as fragile X syndrome.
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On a surprising drug — a workhorse antibiotic used since the 1960s to treat acne, skin infections, strep throat and chlamydia — Chase is learning.
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The medications are still far from proven: Large-scale trials may take several years to complete. But if they live up to their promise without dangerous side effects, they could accomplish what no medication has been able to: cure a genetically based intellectual disability.
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Minocycline, the medication Chase has been taking for almost eight months, is one of several drugs that might correct — even reverse — many of the brain perturbations of fragile X and several other developmental disorders, including autism.
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"People haven't thought about what it would be like to reverse intellectual disability or mental retardation," says Dr. Randi Hagerman, medical director of UC Davis' MIND Institute, who ran the minocycline study in which Chase was enrolled. "We now think it may be possible."
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It's a goal as controversial as it is ambitious. For decades, activists and parents championed inclusion for those with what was until recently called "mental retardation" (the preferred term now is "intellectual disability" or "developmental disability").
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