Posts tagged genetic
Guts against Diabetes
Mar 21st
For a very long time I have been using Diabetes as an example of a disorder that is caused by a mutation in the insulin gene. This mutation would stop the cells from making insulin, and a diabetic might need daily insulin injections to regulate their sugar levels properly. I don’t know what took me so long to realize that this was completely wrong. That while some diabetics are insulin dependent, it is because their insulin-producing cells of the pancreas are being completely destroyed by the immune system. And while they still aren’t sure about why these cells are being More >
Merry Christmas to Hemophilia Patients
Dec 15th
Gene therapy is a technique that offers the potential to replace defective copies of genes in any genetic disease with an intact version. While the idea of this treatment sounds alluring, the actual practice of it is a whole other story. There are a few drawbacks to this technique that must be considered, including the potential risk of an immune response because the gene is inserted with the use of a virus, which the immune system will see as foreign. Also, most patients so far have needed multiple treatments over the course of their lifetime, estimating to cost much more More >
Genetic Disorders Go B/Hollywood
Dec 1st
Remember Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button? Benjamin’s disorder, that had him being born looking like an 80-year-old man and “reverse aging” to pass away as a baby? Well, while I still am not aware of a real disorder that causes this kind of a phenomenon, there is a disorder that indeed makes people age much faster than normal: Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (Progeria for short), which is about to be depicted in a movie of its own.
Progeria is a very rare, genetic disorder that afflicts roughly one in 5 million people. It is caused by a mutation in the LaminA gene More >
