Monday, August 25, 2014

Mucopolysaccharidoses

Mucopolysaccharidoses are storage diseases
Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) is a group of rare, hereditary and incurable “storage diseases.” MPS is named after mucopolysaccharides (sugars bound to proteins), which are not broken down correctly in these diseases, causing the products of incomplete metabolism to accumulate in the body. The stored mucopolysaccharides, nowadays called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), start to disrupt cellular functions. It is estimated that one in 25,000 newborn children has some type of mucopolysaccharidosis (an incidence of 1:25,000).
More about mucopolysaccharidoses