Pregnancy tips Down's Symptom Prevention

Many women who are pregnant over the age of 40 worry about the increased risk of having a child with Down Syndrome (even though the risk is still somewhat small). Here is an interesting article from newscientist.com about how we may be able to treat the condition in the womb. Read more:

Down's symptoms may be treatable in the womb (www.newscientist.com)

From the article:

Children with Down's have an extra copy of chromosome 21, while mice engineered to have a similar condition are given an extra copy of a segment of chromosome 16. In both species, the development of certain motor and sensory abilities is delayed. These "trisomic" individuals may also have learning difficulties and symptoms of Alzheimer's later in life.

Inhibiting the neurotransmitter GABA in trisomic mice can improve cognition and some have suggested this could be used in children. It would be even better, however, to treat Down's before a child is born and so improve cognitive potential.

Previous studies both of people with Down's and trisomic mice have also revealed malfunctions in glial cells - brain cells that regulate the development of neurons by releasing certain proteins. The aberrant cells produce less of these proteins than normal. And adding segments of some of these proteins - known as NAP and SAL - to cultured neurons from people with Down's, which would otherwise degenerate, seems to protect the neurons (Current Pharmaceutical Design, DOI: 10.2174/138161207780618957).