Scientists likely to find treatment for FBS in infants

Australian scientists have claimed to be close to a medical breakthrough which will help treat infants with a genetic disorder that causes Floppy Baby Syndrome.

Australian scientists have claimed to be close to a medical breakthrough which will help treat infants with a genetic disorder that causes Floppy Baby Syndrome.

The researchers claimed to have found a replacement of skeletal muscle actin, a form of protein, which can be used to treat babies suffering from FBS caused due to protein deficiency at the time of birth.

The genetic experiments on mice have shown that replacing that protein with another one known as heart actin can reverse the effects of the disease, said Nigel Laing of West Australia Institute for Medical Research.

'Basically we hope that we may be able to find a drug that will make the heart gene work in skeletal muscles,' Laing was quoted as saying by ABC report.

'Before we are born we actually have the heart actin gene switched on in our skeletal muscles and we all normally switch it off by the time we're born and we don't know why we switch it off, but we do so. Basically we're hoping to find some way of switching it back on again.' he added.