Scientists have discovered a drug which is already on the market for a completely unrelated treatment may be useful in reversing certain forms of autism. Scientists realized that since rapamycin, a medication doctors prescribe to patients who have had transplants to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organs, works on the same gene affected by tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a rare genetic disorder that causes brain tumors, seizures, learning disabilities, skin lesions and kidney tumors, it might be a useful treatment for that disease. Sure enough, in mice at least, affected subjects exhibited a complete turnaround in less than three days.

A human trial is already underway in England, although no word on the results of that are in the article.