(Press-News.org) A European Journal of Neuroscience study suggests that it is critical to treat lysosomal storage disorders early, before symptoms arise. These genetic disorders, which are caused by the malfunction of enzymes that normally degrade various substances within cells, lead to numerous ailments including neurological problems.
Although few therapeutic options are available, clinical trials of treatments including lysosomal enzyme replacement are underway. Researchers who used enzyme replacement to treat mice with early, mid- and later-stages of a lysosomal storage disease found that treatment was most effecting in mice with very early-stage disease. Once symptoms arose, treatment was ineffective.
"Until newborn screening is available world-wide for these conditions, and children are diagnosed prior to symptoms appearing, it is critical that we continue to gather information regarding the reversibility, or not, of disease-based degenerative changes," said senior author Dr. Kim Hemsley.
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Very early treatment may be key to combatting inherited metabolic disorder
2014-08-04
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Maternal singing during skin-to-skin contact benefits both preterm infants and their mothers
2014-08-04
A mother who sings to her preterm infant while providing 'kangaroo care,' or holding with direct skin-to-skin contact, may see improvements in both her child's and her own health. The finding comes from an Acta Paediatrica study of 86 mother-infant pairs in a neonatal intensive care unit in Meir Hospital in Israel.
Compared with preterm infants whose mothers just held them with direct skin-to-skin contact but did not sing, infants whose mothers both held them and sang to them had improved heart rate variability patterns. This combined effect of holding and singing also ...
Inadequately managed allergies cause significant economic burden in Europe
2014-08-04
New research indicates that avoidable indirect costs per patient insufficiently treated for allergy equal 2,405.00 Euros per year due to absence from work and reduced working capacity. On the other hand, appropriate therapy is available at an average cost of 125 Euros per patient annually, which represents only 5% of the cost of untreated disease.
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NOAA, EPA-supported scientists find average but large Gulf dead zone
2014-08-04
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2014-08-04
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2014-08-04
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Study examines viewers' role in American death penalty films
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