The Race To Cure Spinal Muscular Atrophy

(RTTNews) - What is life without a little fun, frolic and fooling around, especially for children? The essence of childhood is play, and there can be no greater misery than a child being robbed of this one heck of a source of joy. A dreaded genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA, that affects 1 in 10,000 children does just that, affecting the quality of life and in most cases proving fatal too.

SMA is the number 1 genetic cause of infant death. Based on the age of the initial onset of muscle weakness and severity of the disease, spinal muscular atrophy is classified into four types: Type I (Infantile), Type II (Intermediate), Type III (Juvenile) and Type IV (Adult onset).

Since this rare neuromuscular disease affects the nerve cells in the lower part of the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for neuro-muscular function, mobility becomes too difficult for children making them confined to a wheel chair. There is no treatment or cure yet for SMA. But there is hope at least for the future, as a few companies are working towards finding a treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

With August being observed as 'SMA awareness month', there could be no better time than now to take a look at some of the companies developing treatments for this inherited genetic muscle wasting disease.