We know Alzheimer's as that disease that generally affects older people. Without a doubt this is the case, but there are cases that this condition to some extent also affects the little ones. Childhood Alzheimer's is known as Sanfilippo syndrome, is a rare hereditary disease and affects one in 50.000 children, whose life expectancy does not go beyond adolescence.
Just as Alzheimer's affects the loss of the abilities of a person's brain and that over time becomes difficult to remember, in children it is still the same type of disorder, manifesting the loss of skills and the ability to learn.
Childhood Alzheimer's or Sanfilippo Syndrome
This disease is neurodegenerative and it is termed as a metabolic disorder. The child's body does not break down the long chains of sugar molecules, as a result of the fact that the enzyme levels are very low and cannot do the function of regulating said substance.
Sugar molecules accumulate in the cells of the Central Nervous System and throughout the body and cause their accumulation determines the malfunction causing progressive damage.
It belongs to a group of diseases called mucopolysaccharidosis. The prefix "much" determines that it is the gelatinous part, "poly" means numerous and "saccharidosis" bypasses the sugar part. That is why it is also known as MPS III syndrome.
Why does this disease occur?
Usually this disease is inherited, by autosomal recessive transmission. Parents can become carriers of an abnormal copy of the gene and be healthy, becoming recessive and never manifest this malfunction.
It is because of that they get to transmit this disease to their children and without knowing it, although it is already rare that two subjects coincide in having said degenerative genes in their body. Therefore it is nicknamed as a rare disease, since its carriers can trigger in three outcomes with respect to their children. One of them can become healthy (25%), another asymptomatic (50%) and another affected (25%).
How does childhood Alzheimer's manifest?
The child can grow up in a normal environment and reaching the age of 2 to 6 years can begin to develop this disease. It will begin with the loss of the ability to learn, with signs or problems of behavior and hyperactivity.
Symptoms:
- Loss of skills and learning in a progressive way.
- Behavior problemsae extreme irritability.
- Sleep disorders, getting to sleep little
- Difficulty in understanding and language leads to severe mental disability.
- His facial features become rough, with thick lips and heavily bushy eyebrows.
- Your stature slows down And presents difficulties when walking and keep your balance.
- Doesn't exist most of the time a control of their sphincters, getting to have a lot of diarrhea.
- They appear recurrently ear and nose infections.
- they have vision problems.
- Other major ailments such as seizures or heart problems.
Treatment
Diagnosis is usually late, as it is a disease that is usually difficult to evaluate since it is confused with some diseases derived from the same symptoms. When in doubt, a genetic study can be carried out that will focus on find those genes that produce it.
Regarding treatment once diagnosed there is no cure for it. Until today there is no medicine that works as such, but there is a Foundation that already has a campaign open to raise funds, support research and subsidize therapies.