what..one mutation can do

http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/25/single-genetic-glitch-may-explain-most-allergies-and-asthma/

Allergies are certainly the result..of both genetic and environmental factors,*but there is fresh evidence to suggest that at least one major genetic aberration!*!..could be behind everything from hay fever to food allergies to asthma.

For decades now, rates of allergies and other immune-related diseases such as asthma and eczema have been rising in the U.S., and the rapid increase suggests that it’s more than just genes, or just changes in lifestyle that made us too clean that are at work.

Now researchers studying the genetics behind the rare tissue disorders Marfan and Loeys-Dietz syndromes have discovered that there may be a common genetic driver behind almost all allergic diseases.

Reporting in the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine say that they were surprised to find..*..that the same mutation they found in the Marfan and Loeys-Dietz patients may also trigger the immune changes responsible for allergies;

most of the patients with the two rare disorders also have higher than normal rates of allergies.

The culprit, they say, is abnormal signaling by a protein called transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta).

TGF-beta is responsible for regulating cell growth and communication, and in the Marfan and Loeys-Dietz patients, mutations in the TGF-beta gene, combined with other genetic aberrations, contribute to dangerous thinning of the blood vessels.

People with seasonal or food allergies are not more likely to develop the conditions, but improper functioning of this protein can also trigger other effects — most notably the cascade of events that are familiar to anyone who suffers from allergies

edited

“Disruption in TGF-beta signaling does not simply nudge immune cells to misbehave but appears to singlehandedly unlock the very chain reaction that eventually leads to allergic disease,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Harry Dietz, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in a statement.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/25/single-genetic-glitch-may-explain-most-allergies-and-asthma/#ixzz2aZcctgtZ

more bad parents
making sick mutations/mutants
http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/mothers-antibodies-may-explain-a-quarter-of-autism-cases/?iid=obinsite
A test for six antibodies in an expectant mom’s blood may predict with more than 99% certainty which children are at highest risk of developing autism.

In a study published in Translational Psychiatry, researchers report that 23% of all cases of autism may result from the presence of maternal antibodies that interfere with fetal brain development during pregnancy.

MORE: Unique Brain Pattern Could Predict Autism in Youngest Children

The research is already leading to what could be the first biological test for autism; the antibodies are found almost exclusively in mothers of autistic children, and not in children with other types of disorders or in mothers of non-autistic children.

Only 1% of mothers whose children were not affected by autism had the antibodies in their blood, compared to 23% of mothers of autistic children.

“We haven’t found any [mothers] who have these antibodies
*and don’t have children with some sort of developmental disability issue,” says Van de Water. “We feel this really identifies a subtype of autism.”

The antibodies belong to a class of compounds called autoantibodies, which are immune cells that the body makes to target — often mistakenly — its own cells.

Scientists do not know why or when the mothers produce these antibodies, which appear to monkey with normal nerve development in the fetal brain by interfering with their growth, migration and genetic replication.

It is possible that infections during pregnancy — a known risk factor for autism —can prompt the immune system to produce them. Exposure to toxic chemicals can also cause immune defenders to mistake healthy cells for invaders, Van de Water notes.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/mothers-antibodies-may-explain-a-quarter-of-autism-cases/#ixzz2aZdyC6vS