Tay-Sach Disease Essay, Research Paper

Tay-Sach Disease

A Tragic Genetic Disease

Christine Woods-Sosso

What is Tay-Sachs disease?

Tay-Sach disease is a tragic inheritied birth defect, that eventually kills the person with it. The symptoms appear around the age of 6 months in what seems to be a healthy baby. The baby gradually stops smiling, crawling or turning over, lose the ability to reach out, and eventually becomes blind, paralyzed, and unaware of their surroundings. They die by the age of 5.

Tay-Sachs disease is when a person lacks the enzymes called Hexosaminidase A that is needed for breaking down certain fatty substances in the brain and nerve calls. Without the enzyme Hexosaminidase A the fatty substance builds up and will slowly destroy brain and nerve cells, until the entire nervous system is destroyed.

Are there other types of Tay-Sachs disease other then the classic type that babies inherity?

There are other rare deficience of the Hexosaminidase A enzyme that are classified under the Tay -Sachs disease. They are sometimes reffered to as juvenile, chronic and adult- onset types of Hexosaminidase