RxPG News : Progeria

Farnesyl Transferase Inhibitors in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:20:00 PST

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a drug currently being tested against cancers might help children with a rare, fatal condition called Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, which causes rapid, premature aging.
Children with progeria appear normal until they're 6 months to a year old, but then begin developing symptoms normally associated with old age -- wrinkled skin, hair loss, brittle bones and atherosclerosis, which usually causes their deaths by about age 13. There's no known treatment.

Anti-cancer drugs might work in aging disease

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:45:00 PST

Working together, scientists at the National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a promising new strategy for treating a form of progeria. That rare but deadly and heartbreaking genetic disease causes children to age remarkably fast and die almost always before they complete their teens.

Lamin research project provides clues about premature aging

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:42:00 PST

A step towards understanding cell mutations that cause a variety of human diseases, particularly in children -- including that which brings about premature aging and early death -- has been taken by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and the John Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Drug prevents cell abnormality leading to progeria

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:39:00 PST

Genetic disease causes accelerated aging, death in children

Farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs) might be useful in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:33:00 PST

In a surprising development, a research team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has found that a class of experimental anti-cancer drugs also shows promise in laboratory studies for treating a fatal genetic disorder that causes premature aging.