Hunt for rare gene carriers

Press, 26 June 1978, Page 21

Hunt for rare gene carriers

PA Dunedin. A research team at the Otago Medical School is trying to detect carriers of the rare genetic Tay-Sachs disease. The Tay-Sachs gene causes a lethal disease if both parents have the gene and pass on a “double dose” to a child. “Affected children appear to develop normally for the few few me ths of life, but then a progressive and incurable brain damage sets in, resulting in death by the age of three to five years,” said Dr R. Gardiner, one of the researchers.

“The condition can, however, be diagnosed early in pregnancy, so that carrier couples' have the choice, if abortion is acceptable to them, of terminating abnormal pregnancies,” Dr Gardiner said.

Carriers of the TaySachs gene are more frequently found in persons of Eastern European

Jewish ancestry, but it [ was not known why. Dr i Gardiner said. One in 300 non-Jews is a carrier for the gene, but as many as one in 30 . Jews is a carrier. The Dunedin pilot study is being made on persons of Jewish decent. Similar work has already been done particularly in the United States, Canada, and Israel, where . several thousand people of Jewish ancestory have | been tested. “Quite a number of carrier couples have been [ thus identified, without ( having had to go through j the trauma of having “ a j child with this most un- ■ pleasant disease,” Dr Gar- I diner said. Dr Gardiner, a lecturer \ in genetics, is working on the project with two bio- I chemists at the Otago Medical School, Dr R. Pulter and Mr P. Winte . If the Dunedin pilot study is successful, it may be extended to other parts j of New Zealand.