Medical achievement that gives a "glimmer of hope" to people with Down syndrome

   

 By Declan Christopher                   November 19, 2019

For decades, mental retardation for people with Down syndrome has been thought to be untreatable, but this could change in the future thanks to a medical breakthrough in the United States.

Down's syndrome is caused by a genetic defect during pregnancy. The disorder leads to delays in the child's learning and intelligence abilities.

Researchers from the University of California San Francisco and Baylor College of Medicine have radically altered mice with Down syndrome, but scientific achievement could provoke significant ethical and scientific controversy in the future if the treatment is contemplated. Humans.

People with Down syndrome suffer from an excess version of the chromosome 21, which is why most medical research has focused on genes.

The study, published in the prestigious journal Science, studied cells that produce protein in the brains of mice with Down syndrome.

The result revealed that the part known as the "hippocampus" in the brain of the infected mouse, produces protein by 39 percent less than the brains of healthy mice without Down syndrome.

Following extensive research, it was found that an additional chromosome in the brain was likely to have led to a decline in protein production in the hippocampus.

In people with Down syndrome, this excess chromosome decreases protein production in the brain by causing cell reactions.

The researcher, Peter Walter, said in a press release that the cell continuously monitors its health, and when something goes wrong, the cell reacts by producing less protein, which is necessary for cognitive abilities to be conducted with a high degree of Efficiency, but when it decreases, there is a defect in the memory composition. "

After this became clear, the researchers inactivated an enzyme responsible for an unwanted intracellular reaction, known as ISR. It was observed that the cognitive abilities of mice changed significantly and the protein level in the brain changed dramatically.

The researchers explain that the success of this solution, i.e. controlling protein and stopping unwanted interaction within the brains of experimental mice, does not necessarily mean that it applies directly to the human body, but this achievement gives a glimmer of hope to people with the disorder.