Cerebral Palsy Cause: Genetic Link Stronger, Scientists Find

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Cerebral palsy affects about one in 323 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC. It is the most common motor disability in children. A study done in 2008 in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Wisconsin among eight-year olds also showed that cerebral palsy was more common among boys than girls, and more common in African American children rather than white children.

This illness is defined by CDC as "a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture." According to cerebralpalsy.org, "cerebral palsy is caused by brain injury or brain malformation that occurs before, during, or immediately after birth while the infant’s brain is under development. But how a brain injury affects a child’s motor functioning and intellectual abilities is highly dependent on the nature of a brain injury, where the damage occurs, and how severe it is."

NWR recently reported a new study conducted by a research team from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) linked genetics to this illness.

According to Dr. Maryam Oskoui, codirector of the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Registry and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, the "research suggests that there is a much stronger genetic component to cerebral palsy than previously suspected."

The research studied 115 children who had cerebral palsy and their parents from the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Registry. Results showed that 10% of the children have copy number variations or CNVs that affect their genes, which according to the study authors are clinically relevant.

"In light of the findings, we suggest that genomic analyses be integrated into the standard of practice for diagnostic assessment of cerebral palsy," Dr. Stephen Scherer, principal investigator of the study and director of The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG) at SickKids, said.

Medical News Today adds that several genes are involved in the development of cerebral palsy, and additional research is encouraged to explain why and how kids are affected by cerebral palsy in various ways, much like autism.

"Parents want to know why their child has particular challenges. Finding a precise reason opens up multiple vistas related to understanding, specific treatment, prevention and rehabilitation," said Dr. Michael Schevell, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at MCH-MUHC. "This study will provide the impetus to make genetic testing a standard part of the comprehensive assessment of the child with cerebral palsy."