Tay-Sachs Disease Case Study

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GNT1 Western Governor University GNT1 Task2 Tay-Sachs disease is a genetic metabolic disorder that is passed to a child through both parents’ chromosomes. The disease is inherited in the autosomal recessive pattern, where two unaffected carrier parents of a recessive trait will pass it on to their offspring to express that trait. In autosomal recessive patterns, each child has a 25% chance that the recessive trait will be express in the phenotype. When the parents are closely related, the probability of the offspring showing the recessive trait is greatly increased. In Tay-Sachs disease, the child inherits mutations in both alleles of a gene (HEXA) on chromosome 15. HEXA is a gene that codes for the alpha subunit of the enzyme β-hexosaminidase A, normally it helps to degrade a lipid called GM2 ganglioside. In Tay-Sachs individuals, excessive accumulation of the GM2 ganglioside accumulates in neurons because of the absent or reduced amount of the enzyme β-hexosaminidase A. The varied and…show more content…
With universal health care, individuals with the diagnosis of a predisposing gene need not fear the loss of access to health care. Such is the case of the Trosaks, because of the default knowledge of a mutated carrier gene due to Mrs. Trosak CSV screening test, their insurance carrier will have they are a autosomal recessive pattern couple and have a with 25% probability of conceiving another child with Tay-Sach disease. The Trosak employee benefit health care carrier will have monetary incentives in denying or renewing their health care coverage based on predictive testing. Health care carriers understand that medical expense for a child with Tay-Sach disease can run in the hundreds of thousands and parents will naturally spare no expense on keeping their child as long and well as

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