Human neurological disease cause

HCMV is widespread in the human population. In immunocompetent individuals, the infection is inapparent or associated with mild symptoms. However, HCMV is frequently transmitted perinatally and is the leading cause of neurological disease and hearing loss in congenitally infected newborns, affecting some 8,000 newborns per year in USA alone (Arvin and Alford 1990). Furthermore, following the first 100 days after transplantation, HCMV-induced pneumonia develops in about 50%... 

An inability to degrade amino acids causes many genetic diseases in humans. These diseases include phenylketonuria (PKU), which results from an inability to convert phenylalanine to tyrosine. The phenylalanine is instead transaminated to phenylpyruvic acid, which is excreted in the urine, although not fast enough to prevent harm. PKU was formerly a major cause of severe mental retardation. Now, however, public health laboratories screen the urine of every newborn child in the United States for the presence of phenylpyru-vate, and place children with the genetic disease on a synthetic low-phenylalanine diet to prevent neurological damage. 

One prevalent neurological disease among human adults is multiple sclerosis (MS), usually characterized by spasms and weakness in one or more limbs, bladder dysfunction, local sensory losses, and visual disturbances. This disorder—the prototype demyelinating disease—is caused by patchy loss of myelin in areas of the brain and spinal cord. In MS patients, conduction of action potentials by the demyellnated neurons is slowed, and the... 

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