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Bernard Sachs, an American neurologist. The history of Tay–Sachs disease started with the development and acceptance of the evolution theory of disease in the 1860s and 1870s, the possibility that science could explain and even prevent or cure illness prompted medical doctors to undertake more precise description and diagnosis of disease.
Tay–Sachs disease is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. The HEXA gene is located on the long (q) arm of human chromosome 15, between positions 23 and 24. Tay–Sachs disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder, meaning that when both parents are carriers, there is a 25% risk of giving birth to an affected child with each ...
Tay–Sachs disease, which can present as a fatal illness of children that causes mental deterioration prior to death, was historically extremely common among Ashkenazi Jews, [19] with lower levels of the disease in some Pennsylvania Dutch, Italian, Irish Catholic, and French Canadian descent, especially those living in the Cajun community of ...
The condition known as Tay–Sachs disease is named after Sachs along with English ophthalmologist Waren Tay. Tay first described the red spot on the retina of the eye in 1881, while Sachs provided a more comprehensive description of the disease, and in 1887 noted its higher occurrence in Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe. [2] [3]
The diseases are better known by their individual names: Tay–Sachs disease, AB variant, and Sandhoff disease. Beta-hexosaminidase is a vital hydrolytic enzyme, found in the lysosomes, that breaks down lipids. When beta-hexosaminidase is no longer functioning properly, the lipids accumulate in the nervous tissue of the brain and cause problems.
In 1881, Waren (often misspelt Warren) Tay first described the red spot on the retina of the eye that is present in Tay–Sachs disease. [1] He reported this condition in the Volume I edition of the Ophthalmological Society, an organization in which he was a founding member. Here he described the symptoms in a child who also had neurological ...
Ashkenazi Jews have been screened as Tay–Sachs carriers since carrier testing began in 1971. Since the 1970s, many Jewish communities have embraced genetic screening, and in 1971, Israel became the first country to offer free genetic screening [1] and counseling for Tay–Sachs disease and other diseases, leading to international discussion about the proper scope of genetic testing.
Although no cure for Tay–Sachs disease has been found, antenatal genetic screening has virtually eliminated the disease in the Ashkenazi Jewish population in both the United States and Israel. In 1979, Kaback served on the first National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel to recommend antenatal diagnosis in cases where a couple might be at risk ...