What Is Tay-Sachs Disease?

By adam

Article Sources

1. Valeriya V. Solovyeva, Alisa A. Shaimardanova, Daria S. Chulpanova, Kristina V. Kitaeva, Lisa Chakrabarti, and Albert A. Rizvanov. New Approaches to Tay-Sachs Disease Therapy. Frontiers in Physiology 2018; 9: 1663.

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3. Transmission

Tay-Sachs is a very rare disease because it can only be transmitted to a child when both parents carry the defective gene. A child who inherits one Tay-Sachs gene from each parent (two Tay-Sachs genes total) does not produce functional HEXA enzymes. Thus, he or she is certain to eventually develop Tay-Sachs disease.

Tay-Sachs disease is only transmitted genetically. The disease cannot be passed to a partner sexually or through any other non-inherited means. Therefore, a person who has the disease is not “contagious” to those around him or her.

Tay-Sachs Disease