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After Enterovirus 68 Outbreak, a Paralysis Mystery
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUISJAN. 12, 2015
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Children?s Hospital Colorado plan to begin looking for enterovirus 68 antibodies in children with limb paralysis.
But even finding a link would amount only to ?good supporting data for a possible cause,? said Dr. Dominguez, who is leading the investigation. It could turn out that the virus ?has nothing to do with their neurological problem.?
Dr. Benjamin M. Greenberg, a neurologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, says he is planning to apply for funding to examine whether the immune system is really to blame. He wants to see if the blood of children with A.F.M. can damage motor neurons in the laboratory.
For a study at Johns Hopkins University, researchers are enrolling children who have A.F.M. and siblings who were also probably exposed to enterovirus 68 this fall. The scientists hope to compare the genes of children with A.F.M. to others to see if there are differences.
?If everybody got enterovirus 68 in a family, but only one child gets paralysis, what is different about that child?? said Priya Duggal, the director of the genetic epidemiology program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who will help lead the study.
?Are these kids harboring a mutation or a set of mutations that are all the same among kids harboring the disease??...
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUISJAN. 12, 2015
...
Children?s Hospital Colorado plan to begin looking for enterovirus 68 antibodies in children with limb paralysis.
But even finding a link would amount only to ?good supporting data for a possible cause,? said Dr. Dominguez, who is leading the investigation. It could turn out that the virus ?has nothing to do with their neurological problem.?
Dr. Benjamin M. Greenberg, a neurologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, says he is planning to apply for funding to examine whether the immune system is really to blame. He wants to see if the blood of children with A.F.M. can damage motor neurons in the laboratory.
For a study at Johns Hopkins University, researchers are enrolling children who have A.F.M. and siblings who were also probably exposed to enterovirus 68 this fall. The scientists hope to compare the genes of children with A.F.M. to others to see if there are differences.
?If everybody got enterovirus 68 in a family, but only one child gets paralysis, what is different about that child?? said Priya Duggal, the director of the genetic epidemiology program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who will help lead the study.
?Are these kids harboring a mutation or a set of mutations that are all the same among kids harboring the disease??...