A GROUP of newly discovered genetic diseases that strike people in midlife - causing uncontrollable movements, loss of cognitive functions and emotional disturbances - may soon be cured thanks to the help of fruit flies and a Hong Kong biochemist, the South China Morning Post said yesterday (Mar 26).

According to Hong Kong's health department, polyglutamine diseases - nine conditions caused by stretches of DNA in a gene that contain the same trinucleotide sequence repeated many times - started appearing in Hong Kong in 2000. The most common versions include Huntington's Disease, Kennedy's Disease and various types of spinocerebellar ataxia. There may be no cure, but Chinese University of Hong Kong biochemist Edwin Chan Ho-yin is close to finding a way to stop the disease progressing, with the help of a genus of fruit fly called Drosophila. It shares more than 60 percent of human disease genes.

Chan, who began by focusing on Huntington's Disease, explained that the gene responsible for the disease was caused by an expansion of the CAG DNA sequence.

Using fruit flies, Chan discovered a special protein that could help fix the sequence. Preliminary tests have been promising, but final results will not be in until the end of June.

Editor: Wing