Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) has brought the “Universal Genetic Test” to India to help check birth of children with genetic disorders.
Invented by scientists from Stanford, Harvard and MIT, the Universal Genetic Test (UGT) is an innovative test based on customised microarray technology, which scans through a combination of serious and disabling genetic disorders such as SMA, Sickle Cell Anaemia, Beta Thalassemia and Tay-Sachs disease, along with less serious but equally important metabolic genetic disorders such as Fructose Intolerance, MSUDs, Biotinidase deficiency and Ataxias.
The Universal Genetic Test has been exhaustively validated and is shown to have 99.9 per cent accuracy for targeted mutations in more than 100 known genetic diseases. Announcing the launch of UGT in India, Dr BR Das, President – Research and Innovation at Super Religare Laboratories, said, “As compared to infectious diseases or cancer the magnitude of genetic disorders is relatively low however they need equal attention due to their serious health implications and the worst genetic disorders are life threatening and incurable. We, at SRL, are happy to bring this unique Universal Genetic Test to India which we are sure will be of help to couples since it will help them to know the prospects of their offspring are inheriting genetic disorders.”
Globally, about five per cent of children are born with congenital or genetic disorders. Indians, representing about one-sixth of the world population, comprise several thousands of endogamous groups with strong potential for genetic disorders. As per published data, a large number of infants with genetic disorders are born every year.
Genetic disorders can be caused by a mutation in one gene (monogenic disorder), mutations in multiple genes (multi-factorial inheritance disorder), a combination of gene mutations and environmental factors, or by damage to chromosomes. Most of the mutations related to genetic disorders are inherited from biological parents. If both the parents are carriers, a child has a 25 per cent chance of being homozygous wild-type (unaffected), 25 per cent chance of being homozygous mutant (affected) or a 50 per cent chance of being heterozygous (unaffected carrier). In each of the affected 25 per cent cases, quality of life is a serious cause of concern.
Interested couples can undergo this test with appropriate pretest counselling as per the standard norms. Those who test positive can plan ahead after receiving post counselling recommendations. They might choose in vitro fertilisation, combined with preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or they might decide to adopt. Either way, the objective is to control or avoid the birth of babies or children’s with such devastating genetic disorders. Thus, UGT test is a good way of ensuring that fewer people are afflicted with genetic disorders.
EH News Bureau