A new mental illness is revealed for the first time in three children

London: A completely new neurological disorder has been discovered in three children in which children have difficulty moving their hands and body parts and speaking, and the cause is said to be genetic.

The three children were evaluated under the National Institutes of Health and National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) Nondiagnosed Diseases Program. Experts believe that due to the gene disruption, brain cells lose an important ability ‘autophagy’, which stops cellular recovery (recycling). By understanding this process, we will be able to understand Alzheimer’s and other diseases in depth.

The first child had initial symptoms three years later, in which he was experiencing difficulty concentrating. Then she started having tetanus-like seizures, and had difficulty speaking. At the age of one and a half, he developed the attention-deficit disorder ADHD. He became irritable and his acuity started to decline.

The other two children include siblings. One of them has impaired hand movements and the other sister has difficulty in speaking and learning.

All three shared the ‘ATG Fordy’ gene. Defects in this gene and motor neuron defects had already been revealed in research on dogs, but now the condition has been observed in humans for the first time. A team of experts is conducting further research on this, which will help in understanding many more diseases.