Author Topic: Dogs Provide Insight Into Rare Genetic Disease  (Read 1004 times)

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Offline DeeDee

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Dogs Provide Insight Into Rare Genetic Disease
« on: June 15, 2013, 02:55:40 PM »
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/06/dogs-provide-insight-into-rare-g.html?ref=hp#.UbxPS7Mgls4.twitter

Quote
"Thanks to genomic comparison, we are understanding finally that dogs and humans are sick in the same way and can be treated the same way," Tiret says. "Dogs help us and we help them."

Glad to finally see a scientist admit it so bluntly after all the years they've cruelly used them as guinea pigs for human medication development.

Something makes me wonder if what they're studying in this article is anything similar to the disease Black Russian Terriers have recently been found to carry: Juvenile laryngeal paralysis/polyneuropathy. Loss of control of muscles goes along with the laryngeal paralysis symptoms, and the puppies die by the time they're 4 mths old. They're working on a test for the gene, and Vlad has been part of that since his sire (with different dam) was found to have passed it on to a couple of litters since this disease isn't widely known about--most don't know until they run into it.

The muscle issues they were talking about in this article sound similar to those in JLPP.

I find these kinds of diseases fascinating b/c they're genetic disorders that require a copy from both parents the way FMF does in humans--which weirdly enough, the family in this article is from Turkey. Though rare anywhere, FMF is a more common disease in that country than ours, and physicians there know what to look for so that treatment is begun earlier in the child's life to help prevent complications later on in life.
"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semihuman. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog." Edward Hoagland
"Thorns may hurt you, men desert you, sunlight turn to fog; but you're never friendless ever, if you have a dog."

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