DNALC Blogs » inheritable http://blogs.dnalc.org Thu, 04 Feb 2016 20:30:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1 Genetic Disorders Go B/Hollywood http://blogs.dnalc.org/2009/12/01/genetic-disorders-go-bhollywood/ http://blogs.dnalc.org/2009/12/01/genetic-disorders-go-bhollywood/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:15:42 +0000 http://7.78 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 on chromosome 1. The most striking symptom of Progeria-afflicted children is that they age rapidly. They frequently succumb to coronary artery disease before they reach 20 years of age.

Directed by R Balakrishnan the Indian movie company AB Corp Ltd. has released the movie “Paa”. The picture’s protagonist is a 13-year old boy afflicted with progeria – and is being played by an actor who is actually in his 60s. AB Corp Ltd. proclaims that Paa is not a movie about the disease Progeria, but about “how special children can fill your life with special brightness.”

Read more: about Progeria at the Progeria Research Foundation; about living with serious genetic disorders at the DNALC’s Your Genes, Your Health site.

]]> http://blogs.dnalc.org/2009/12/01/genetic-disorders-go-bhollywood/feed/ 0