WHAT IS UNER TAN SYNDROME? By: Lyn Estuye
The Uner Tan Syndrome is a never before seen syndrome common in the lives of people in Turkey, and now in Iraq and Brazil. It has shocked scientists and people all around the world when the very first family of 19 in Turkey was discovered, and out of 19 members there were 5 who had a very strange way of walking. When I say strange, I mean people walking on the floor using not only their feet, but along with the palms of their hands, shocking right?
You can picture them as babies crawling, but in a down-ward dog position, and the scientists called it having quadrupedality. We have all been in the stage of walking on the floor like that when we were babies, but time has passed by and we have all become bipedalism, which means we are two-footed or we use two feet for walking or standing.
This condition doesn't just revolve around quadrupedality, people with the uner tan syndrome is also suffering from undeveloped language capabilities and severe mental retardation.
Now there are many controversy’s about the uner tan syndrome, if the people who have it just developed into having the syndrome or if there was any relations towards genetic abnormalities. Continue reading, if you want to know the mysterious background of what the Uner tan syndrome is.
You can picture them as babies crawling, but in a down-ward dog position, and the scientists called it having quadrupedality. We have all been in the stage of walking on the floor like that when we were babies, but time has passed by and we have all become bipedalism, which means we are two-footed or we use two feet for walking or standing.
This condition doesn't just revolve around quadrupedality, people with the uner tan syndrome is also suffering from undeveloped language capabilities and severe mental retardation.
Now there are many controversy’s about the uner tan syndrome, if the people who have it just developed into having the syndrome or if there was any relations towards genetic abnormalities. Continue reading, if you want to know the mysterious background of what the Uner tan syndrome is.
Why can't they walk?
Now the question is, why can’t they walk like us? There are many reasons that several of researchers have thought of and have found out why people have this symptom. The number one reason that they have identified was that it had something to do with abnormal genetic mutation.
The families that were affected with this condition had the same reasons why so many of them in the family had the same condition. It is because these families are associated with consanguineous marriage, which means they had marriage between cousins and close family members. Or you can even say that they breed from a close related person in the family. Now in Turkey where most cases of this condition are found, consanguineous marriage is not rare for people there, so having this syndrome there would be common for people.
Now, researchers found out that this condition is suspected to be involved with autosomal recessive gene, this is how the disease can be passed through the families. The idea is, there are 2 copies of an abnormal gene in their DNA and those 2 copies must be present for the 2 diseases to develop. When they say recessive, it means that both genes in the pair must be defective to cause the disease.
The families that were affected with this condition had the same reasons why so many of them in the family had the same condition. It is because these families are associated with consanguineous marriage, which means they had marriage between cousins and close family members. Or you can even say that they breed from a close related person in the family. Now in Turkey where most cases of this condition are found, consanguineous marriage is not rare for people there, so having this syndrome there would be common for people.
Now, researchers found out that this condition is suspected to be involved with autosomal recessive gene, this is how the disease can be passed through the families. The idea is, there are 2 copies of an abnormal gene in their DNA and those 2 copies must be present for the 2 diseases to develop. When they say recessive, it means that both genes in the pair must be defective to cause the disease.
Now let’s look at the deeper reason of why they can’t walk properly, the culprit everyone keeps pointing at is the VLDLR gene. Which provides instructions for making a protein called a very low density lipoprotein receptor, or you can call it VLDLR. The VLDLR plays a very important role in the development in the brain, and specifically in the cerebellum, which is the very large part of your brain that controls your movements, posture and balance.
Now here’s a sample of what happens to the VLDLR. Okay, we will call one family, family A and the other family D. In family A, a strange mutation was found in a base pair, which is the pair of nitrogenous bases that connects the complementary strands of DNA or a double-stranded RNA. Then in family D, a deletion was found in base pair. These mutations caused a premature in the VLDLR that caused a shortage of the receptor, which is specialized cell endings that responds to sensory act of an organism. These seem to be the cause of the Uner Tan Syndrome.
Now here’s a sample of what happens to the VLDLR. Okay, we will call one family, family A and the other family D. In family A, a strange mutation was found in a base pair, which is the pair of nitrogenous bases that connects the complementary strands of DNA or a double-stranded RNA. Then in family D, a deletion was found in base pair. These mutations caused a premature in the VLDLR that caused a shortage of the receptor, which is specialized cell endings that responds to sensory act of an organism. These seem to be the cause of the Uner Tan Syndrome.
Meet the families
The one who found out about the Uner Tan syndrome was the one and only biologist Üner Tan. He found it out in 2005, based on the 5 members, called the Ulas family. They are from a village near Turkey, Iskenderun. They belonged to consanguineous families that were all close relatives, marrying into each other’s family. The total number of members in this family are 19 but only 5 of them got this syndrome, they all had the same symptoms and they would mostly stick together. In the end of this family, their disorder remained unclear to them, but many still say that genetics was a major part of why they act like this.
This wasn't just the family in Turkey that had the uner tan syndrome, and now there are some from Iran, and Chile. Almost all of families had the same situations and surrounding environments, they were all poor, they lived in small villages, and they were very religious, saying that, “God gave them to us.”
This wasn't just the family in Turkey that had the uner tan syndrome, and now there are some from Iran, and Chile. Almost all of families had the same situations and surrounding environments, they were all poor, they lived in small villages, and they were very religious, saying that, “God gave them to us.”
No Treatments?!?!?
There were many ways the parents or doctors tried to help the people who had this syndrome, to walk on just their feet.
Examples:
*A mother of a quadrupedal daughter, forced her daughter to walk up on her feet for six years, but in the end it didn’t work and it was a failure.
*One physician who was a relative to the family, treated the affected children by using parallel bars for a while, but it was unsuccessful.
*Another mother of a quadruped daughter fastened stones to her legs to make her legs stronger for six straight years, so she would be able to stand and walk upright. But just like the other cases it didn’t work.
*Some other individuals used crutches, but they also didn’t work on them, and in the end they preferred to walk the way they have been walking.
So in the end, none of the physical treatments could improve or give them the ability to walk upright in their own.
Examples:
*A mother of a quadrupedal daughter, forced her daughter to walk up on her feet for six years, but in the end it didn’t work and it was a failure.
*One physician who was a relative to the family, treated the affected children by using parallel bars for a while, but it was unsuccessful.
*Another mother of a quadruped daughter fastened stones to her legs to make her legs stronger for six straight years, so she would be able to stand and walk upright. But just like the other cases it didn’t work.
*Some other individuals used crutches, but they also didn’t work on them, and in the end they preferred to walk the way they have been walking.
So in the end, none of the physical treatments could improve or give them the ability to walk upright in their own.
Here is an almost an hour of information about the Uner Tan Syndrome, for Viewer’s enjoyment!
The 2006 BBC2 documentary The Family That Walks On All Fours (from youtube)!
The 2006 BBC2 documentary The Family That Walks On All Fours (from youtube)!