What Is Tay-Sachs Disease?
Tay-Sachs
The disease Tay-Sachs was discovered by two men, the first one was a British ophthalmologist named Warren Tay who described the disease in 1881. The second one was a New York neurologist named Bernard Sachs who described the cellular changes and the genetic nature of the disease in 1887.
Tay-Sachs is a rare disorder where a child who inherits the gene from both parents Specialists claim that Tay-Sachs disease is developed by children who lack a protein that is necessary to dissolve a fatty deposit formed in healthy neurons. Tay Sachs is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder. This means that when both parents are carriers there is a 25% risk of giving birth to an affected child with each pregnancy. If only one parent passes the defective gene to the child, the child is called a carrier. He or she won’t be sick, but will have potential to pass the disease to his or her own children. So, mutations in the HEXA gene cause Tay-Sachs disease. The mutated genes carried by both parents show no signs or symptoms of the disease. This is why commonly parents have no idea that their baby …show more content…
There is no cure for this disease so the child will only live from around three – five years of age before they die. The child with this disease will show symptoms around six months old. Infantile Tay-Sachs disease has no cure, leading to the death of the child, before turning 4. Juvenile Tay-Sachs disease is developed in children between 2 and 10 years old. Death usually occurs when the child is 15. Adult Tay-Sachs disease is the only form of this condition which is not fatal. This is the rarest form of the condition. This means that its effects and progression can be stopped.
People in their 20’s and 30’s can actually develop a variant of this disease that causes them to have difficulty balancing and results in a progressive deterioration that is similar to what is seen in children with the classic form of the
The disease Tay-Sachs was discovered by two men, the first one was a British ophthalmologist named Warren Tay who described the disease in 1881. The second one was a New York neurologist named Bernard Sachs who described the cellular changes and the genetic nature of the disease in 1887.
Tay-Sachs is a rare disorder where a child who inherits the gene from both parents Specialists claim that Tay-Sachs disease is developed by children who lack a protein that is necessary to dissolve a fatty deposit formed in healthy neurons. Tay Sachs is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder. This means that when both parents are carriers there is a 25% risk of giving birth to an affected child with each pregnancy. If only one parent passes the defective gene to the child, the child is called a carrier. He or she won’t be sick, but will have potential to pass the disease to his or her own children. So, mutations in the HEXA gene cause Tay-Sachs disease. The mutated genes carried by both parents show no signs or symptoms of the disease. This is why commonly parents have no idea that their baby …show more content…
There is no cure for this disease so the child will only live from around three – five years of age before they die. The child with this disease will show symptoms around six months old. Infantile Tay-Sachs disease has no cure, leading to the death of the child, before turning 4. Juvenile Tay-Sachs disease is developed in children between 2 and 10 years old. Death usually occurs when the child is 15. Adult Tay-Sachs disease is the only form of this condition which is not fatal. This is the rarest form of the condition. This means that its effects and progression can be stopped.
People in their 20’s and 30’s can actually develop a variant of this disease that causes them to have difficulty balancing and results in a progressive deterioration that is similar to what is seen in children with the classic form of the