14 DAY TRIAL // Soya beans contain a natural chemical that could prove to be a very effective treatment against a fatal genetic disease that affects children, a new research carried out by a team of scientists from The University of Manchester, concluded.
For the study, mice affected by Sanfilippo disease, were fed high doses of genistein (derived from soya beans and licensed in the US as an osteoporosis drug), over a period of nine months.
The response to the treatment was quite positive as the mice showed an important delay in their mental decline, with a third decrease in the amount of excess sugars caused by the disease inside the brain, and a sixth reduction in inflammation in the brain.
Another important positive result was the full correction of the hyperactivity and other abnormal behavior seen in Sanfilippo mice, by the genistein treatment.
The man who discovered the curative effects of genistein is Dr Brian Bigger, from the University's MPS Stem Cell Research Laboratory, based in the School of Biomedicine.
He said that “Sanfilippo is an untreatable mucopolysaccharide (MPS) disease affecting one in 89,000 children in the United Kingdom.
“Children with Sanfilippo disease experience progressive deterioration of mental function, similar to dementia, in early childhood, with other symptoms including severe behavioral problems, hyperactivity and ultimately death in early teens.”
Dr Bigger conducted this research along with colleagues from St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, and Professor Wraith, a co-author on the study and consultant pediatrician from Genetic Medicine in St Mary's Hospital, said that “Sanfilippo is a disease where the genetic lack of an enzyme leads to a fault in the breakdown of complex sugars in the cell.
“This leads to storage of these undegraded complex sugars in cells, disturbances in brain function and ultimately to this profound mental deterioration that we see in the children with this condition.
“Manchester is a specialist center for this type of genetic disease and as such we look after more than 100 patients from all over the UK and beyond.”
The next step is continuing work on the treatment and announcing a placebo controlled clinical trial for patients with Sanfilippo disease in the near future.
The Manchester team is supported by the UK society for mucopolysaccharide diseases and the Manchester Biomedical Research Center.
The results of this research were published in the journal Public Library of Science One.