What is progeria?

Progeria, also known as Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), is a rare genetic condition that causes rapid aging in children. It occurs in both sexes.
Progeria has a very low incidence rate occurring in an estimated 1 per 8 million live birth worldwide.

Most kids with progeria hardly attain maturity usually they do not live past mid teens or early twenties.

Progeria can not be inherited, or passed down in families. Because it occur as a new mutation and carriers hardly live to reproduce.

Symptoms of progeria

Children with progeria appear normal when they're born, but they start to show signs of the disease during their first year. They  do not grow or gain weight normally. They develop physical traits including:


Wrinkled face

Big head

Large eyes

Small lower jaw

Thin nose with a "beaked" tip

Ears that stick out

Veins you can see

Slow and abnormal tooth growthigh-pitched voice

Loss of body fat and muscle

Hair loss, including eyelashes and eyebrows

Hardening and tightening of the skin on trunk and extremities of the body,

Other symptoms include:

Kidney failure,

Loss of eyesight,

Atherosclerosis  and cardiovascular problems


Note: Mental development is not affected in  progeric children.

Causes of progeria

LMNA is a gene that codes for a structural protein called prelamin A.
Under normal conditions there is a farnesyl functional group which attaches to the carboxyl-terminus of the protein structure.

The farnesyl group allows prelamin A to attach temporarily to the nuclear rim. Once the protein is attached, the farnesyl group is removed. Without its farnesyl group, prelamin A is referred to as lamin A.

Lamin A, along with lamin B and lamin C, makes up the nuclear lamina, which provides structural support to the nucleus.

But under abnormal conditions the farnesyl group remain attached to the prolamin A making it to permanently affix to the nuclear rim which result to abnormally formed Lamin A called Progerin responsible for premature aging.




                                                           Healthy nucleus         progeric nucleus



This abnormaity was discovered to be due to a point mutation in position 1824 of the LMNA gene, in which C (cytosine) is replaced with T (thymine).

This mutation creates a 5' cryptic splice site within exon 11, resulting in an abnormally short mature mRNA transcript.

This mRNA strand, when translated, yields an abnormal variant of the
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