Viral Genes in Neurological Disorders

Abstract

Abstract The genetic analysis of neurological disorders is a difficult and protracted endeavor. Genetics is one of the main disciplines that will be required for the etiology of several major neurological disorders due to viruses through the analysis of rare inherited subgroups. The identification of individual susceptibility genes with variants of smaller effect will be more difficult, but there is no sharp demarcation between large and small genetic effects, so that many new and important insights will emerge using existing and new technologies. The availability of improved neuroimaging, better animal models of disease, and new genetic tools, such as high-throughput gene chips, expression microarrays, and proteomics, are extending the range of traditional genetic mapping tools. Gene therapy is the most significant and unique treatment technique nowadays, which utilizes single or combinations of genes or short oligonucleotide sequences as therapeutic option, instead of conventional drugs. This technique is now widely used to treat many diseases caused by insertion/mutation of defective genes. Gene therapy involves the introduction of one or more foreign genes into an organism or cell to treat hereditary/acquired genetic diseases. In gene therapy, DNA encoding a desired therapeutic protein is packaged within a “vector,” which transports the desired DNA inside cells. The most recent demonstration of gene therapy is Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy also approved by the FDA. A more advancement on the horizon for other genetic neurological disorders such as Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that exhibits X chromosome linkage, leads to severe mental retardation in girls.