ASSUMPTIONS about how the chromosomal abnormalities associated with Down鈥檚
syndrome affect the body have been turned on their head.
It was thought that in different tissues, changes in the expression of
different genes were responsible for the various problems associated with
Down鈥檚. Now a team from Switzerland has found that gene expression in every cell
may be affected. Stylianos Antonarakis of the University of Geneva Medical
School found that levels of expression of 330 of the 25,000 proteins produced in
mice brains were different in mice with Down鈥檚. Crucially, at least 16 of these
were proteins linked to ribosomes鈥攖he protein-making factories in cells
(Genome Research, vol 10, p 2006). 鈥淚t suggests that the whole
machinery of gene expression is altered,鈥� he says.
Identifying the protein imbalances might even make treatments possible, he
says.
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