Brian Chan with his daughter Galya, who has NPC, and her twin brother Ezra, who is an NPC carrierCOURTESY OF BRIAN CHANA protein encoded by a gene linked to the rare, fatal disease Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) is required for the Ebola virus to infect our cells and replicated within them. This surprising link between the genetic disease and the deadly virus now ravaging parts of West Africa was first identified in 2011; now researchers are taking advantage by studying the parents of children with NPC.
These parents are each carriers of a mutated NPC1 gene, which encodes the protein NPC1. Their children inherited a mutant copy from each parent, resulting in the development of NPC disease. A few years ago, studying mice that similarly carry one normal copy of NPC, just like the parents of kids suffering from NPC, an international group of researchers found that the animals were susceptible to Ebola, but many survived the infection, The Wall Street Journal reported. On the other hand, mice carrying two good copies of the gene all died after contracting Ebola. And all mice that lacked both functioning copies of the gene survived. The team published their results in Nature in 2011. In the same issue, an independent group also published evidence ...
